Super Switch
by MSCIBET
Summary: HG Wells to the ...ehem... rescue? Lex and Chloe switch bodies with Lois and Clark and chaos ensues on both sides.
1. Smallville Gets a Little Weirder

Title: Super Switch

Author: Superag

Rating: PG13

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in either Smallville or Lois and Clark. I do not receive any monies etc. from any of this writing. I only benefit from the wonderful feedback and picturing what's going on for my amusement.

Crossover: This is a crossover of Smallville and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. If you haven't seen the show from the 90's, it is quite different than SV. The ships will be Clois from L&C (3rd season) and Chlex from SV (5th season).

Synopsis: Chloe and Lex get switched to another dimension where they find out a lot more about Clark and Lois' future while Lois and Clark try to figure out Chloe and Lex's feelings for each other.

Smallville Gets Weirder – Chapter 1

Lex huffed at the last words from Clark as he followed Lana up the hill and back toward the barn. Turning, he noticed the strange far off look from Chloe as she watched the two disappear in a flurry of laughter. Walking over and leaning against an opposite post of the newly framed barn, he shoved his hands in his pockets unnoticed to her.

"Does it surprise you?" Lex asked coolly as Chloe turned to look at Lex. Rolling her eyes, she just nodded and started back toward the group of women before feeling his hand on her arm. "And to think he didn't even make the effort to get you out of the Yukon. I had to do that."

"You didn't have to do anything," Chloe sneered at the young man and tried to pull her arm away. Looking at him intently, she knew that he longed to learn about Clark but not sure what the motive. The puppy dog eyes that he revealed in Lana's direction as well were as covered up as hers to Clark. She scoffed silently to herself thinking that Clark could see through objects but apparently not right in front of himself.

"The least I could do after you knock me out." Lex released her arm and expected her to leave. Instead, he sighed, cocking his head in another direction and smirking. "You still haven't told me why you were there? Clark just magically disappeared from that cave?"

Shaking her head, she started away again, "I don't have to justify anything to you."

Not wavering from her snide comment and obvious mistrust of the situation, he scoffed. "There's a lot a of history between us Chloe."

"Not enough to do what you are thinking. Lex, don't you get it? There's a reason you aren't privy to information of many kinds. People see that strange dark streak that is your family's heritage emulate from you a little more each day. It seems to tighten its grip around your soul every time you think you get close to something that just isn't there."

Lex pulled Chloe away from the others and gripped her upper arm as she cringed. Leaning into her, he dropped his well attached smirk, "Do you honestly think that I would be out for vengeance? I have wanted to stay friends with Clark just as Lana. I can't help his agonizing lies and I really am sorry that now he's got you lying for him as well. I thought we had seen each other as equals."

Chloe glared, locking her jaw in anger at Lex. She couldn't really place when things fell apart between them. The last year after the trial had been rocky since Clark had found her after Lex's ill fated safehouse switch. Then there was the arrival of her obnoxious cousin that had wedged the only time Lex could talk to her out of his ability. By the time of the meteor shower, things only dwindled to jealousy for both her and Lex, but in different ways. An entire year lost on what Chloe had hoped would get her mind off Clark.

"Once, but I'm not on the same path you are."

"And what path would that be my dear?" Lex dropped his hand from her arm and both turned to see an old man dressed as if he was confused on the date.

"Sir, this is a private discussion," Lex offhandedly answered trying to ignore the strange quirky man.

"Ahh, but when one is discussing Clark Kent in any dimension, it becomes one of my interests Mr. Luthor. And as I see no Tempus in your dimension, the time traveler must have picked up on your behavior."

Chloe and Lex paused, both mouths opened and stared at the little man and then at each other. "I think the spaceship forgot somebody," Chloe joked as she continued to paste a smile on for the strange little man, suddenly standing closer to Lex than she had in many months.

"I'm sorry, my manners. My name is Herbert George Wells. And you two may be the only young people in this fair town to know who I am." The old man tipped his hat and smiled gently while adjusting his glasses.

"HG Wells," Lex commented uncomfortably. Running his hand along his scalp, he tried to shake his head and then looked at Chloe who could not take her eyes off the man. "I think more than a rock and a bolt of light hit us in that cave," he whispered in Chloe's ear.

Feeling the strangeness of Lex's breath in her ear, she tried to adjust to sudden strange turn of events. Chloe couldn't frame words in her strange whimper back. "I think it's the sun."

"Now, if you two would accompany me," the little man said before he turned and started heading down the hill. "I think you will find it very fascinating Mr. Luthor and Miss Sullivan, knowing both of your desires for the unexplained." Mr. Wells smiled to himself as he looked over his shoulder and eyeing the two still standing bewildered.

"After the lady," Lex groaned. "Maybe he can tell us when the next wave of aliens is going to attack," he chuckled half heartedly as Chloe looked over her shoulder at his shaking his head.

Chloe glared up at Lex and shook her head again. Walking up to the contraption buried behind a group of trees, Chloe snickered. "That is a time machine?" She looked at Lex, both all but forgotten the argument they were having earlier. Looking over her shoulder, she couldn't imagine things getting much weirder after the last week. "What the hell; aliens and little old men." Climbing into the back seat of the strange vehicle as it started up, she stared at Lex.

"What? Now you grow a conscience? It's not as if Lana and Clark are going to want to hang out with you tonight."

Seeing Chloe's point and falling again for his incredibly insatiable desire for the strange, he climbed in the contraption before a flash of light and Smallville disappeared through a funnel.

****

"Hey guys, I thought you two were taking some time off before the big day? If you're here anyway, you should check in with Perry." The spunky kid ran around the desk of the main floor of the Daily Planet building and up the stairs to the elevator. Yelling across the newsroom, he waved, "And thanks for the in Lois, Megan is coming to wedding with me."

Looking at each other, Lex noticed his clothes were distinctly different and then eyed Chloe, "Did he just say Lois?"

"Yeah, and I have this sneaking reporter's instinct that you're Clark. Nice glasses."

"How?" Lex leaned over to whisper and Chloe turned him around to face the desk behind him. Neatly placed in the middle of the desk between two pencil cups and mounds of paper was a nameplate. Removing the glasses from his face, Chloe smiled and pushed them back up to him.

"Put them back; I have a feeling they are there for a reason. But I don't resemble Lois in the slightest."

"No, you look stylish but professional. Your cousin should learn something about it. Maybe you could take this little experience and teach her something."

Chloe raised her eyebrow at Lex's suggestion, but realized he may not have ben far off. "Maybe I will give her some tips when we get out of here. Wait, my cousin isn't even a damn reporter." Chloe paused and Lex could see the look on her face. Raising her hand to her mouth, she scrambled around the desk of what said Lois Lane on it and started typing into the computer in front of her.

Moving back form the screen, she noticed the headline from the Daily Planet archive in their present dimension. "Green Reporter Chloe Sullivan lost in Panamanian Rainforest Raid," Lex read over her shoulder slowly. "You're dead. You were older than Lois here," he commented skimming the rest of the article and doing quick math calculations. "Try mine."

Chloe looked over her shoulder and huffed wondering if she even wanted to know about Lex. It was clear that nothing was as it seemed. After a few clicks of the keys, Lex was relieved that part of Chloe at least remained. "Oh God," she whispered at the screen as she felt Lex lean further over her shoulder.

"Lex Luthor Behind Bars," Lex read to himself. Chloe flipped her head around and stared at Lex turn a shade of white she had never seen on the man, even in someone else's body.

"Lex, you think Mr. Wells…"

"Dumped us here in this hell to see what could happen. I went to jail for kidnapping Lois after being raised from the dead. What the hell? I thought we already had weird problems, but they follow me."

Chloe spun out of the chair and turned off the computer. "No, they don't follow you – you apparently make them in every life. Now let's just figure out how to get out of here and go back to being barely speaking." Chloe picked up the jacket she had shed just as the editor's office door open.

"Lois, Clark. What are you two doing here? I thought I told you to take time off before the big day. Get…"

"We're on our way," Lex smiled and placed a hand on the small of Chloe's back. "See you at the wedding Perry," he added before turning toward the elevator. Leaning into Chloe, he glared, "Perry White runs the Planet. And I apparently owned the Planet before going psychotic."

"Talk at the apartment." Lex pushed her in elevator as Chloe started going through what was obviously Lois' purse. Pulling out the driver's license, Lex leaned over and nodded. The apartment was in a nice area of town. Suddenly he wondered if Lois from their dimension would ever become that practical.

Arriving back at Lois' apartment, they walked in and took in the small but chic place. " I could use some coffee and some aspirin. You?" She looked over at Lex as he sat down on the couch in the middle of the living room. Whoever this Lois in this dimension was, he liked her tastes much more than the loud colors that Chloe was going for.

"Fine." Turning on the television, he leaned back and noticed that none of his companies existed in the market. Most were smaller companies that used to be staked by Luthorcorp. But the scroll caught his eye; they actually were an announcement on the news, about the wedding. "We're the news."

"What?" Chloe handed Lex a cup and then looked at the same scroll as he was reading. "Looks like Lois and Clark make something of themselves."

"Looks like you can find your way around the kitchen. At least that bodes well for us." Lex laughed half heartedly as he took a sip from the cup.

"I have a thing for knowing about coffee and painkillers," Chloe drolled as if Lex should know better. Chloe continued walking around the apartment, noticing the small pictures of people with Lois and Clark in the photos. Lois had parents that weren't military. This ought to be good.

Just then the doorbell rang and the two looked at each other and waited. "Your apartment." Rolling her eyes, Lois got up and opened the door, signed for the small slender box and then sat back down on the couch next to Lex. "To Lois Lane."

"Funny," she dropped. Popping the ribbon from around the box, she gasped, "They're dead." Lex put his cup down and looked at the box full of dead, almost crunchy roses as Chloe sat back in the seat and stared at the roses.

********

"Clark!" Lois screamed as she pulled herself up from the grass she was laying. Seeing something rolling around on the ground, she wandered over and stared at the man. His head was bald and he was dressed in a back trenchcoat in what felt like the middle of summer. "Clark?"

"God, my head." Clark stopped and sat up. "My head doesn't hurt normally."

"Yeah, and you're usually not bald. Clark, I have a really bad feeling about what is going on here. Pull out your wallet." Clark walked up to Lois and pulled the wallet out of the front breast pocket and choked. Lois looked over his arm as she moved stealthily away from him. "Oh, I was afraid of that. Try something – your you know," Lois said while trying to pretend no one was noticing the two of them from the top of the hill.

Clark stood up and stared past the trees and squinted harder. "Nope, it's all gone." He turned and looked at Lois. "Who are you anyway? You know anyone with blonde hair?"

Lois thought for a minute as she saw a man waving in Lex's direction. "Come on, I think your ride is here." The two started down the hill as Martha and Jonathon Kent watched the two leave. "My older cousin Chloe was a reporter for awhile until she was killed in a drug raid."

"Good afternoon Miss Sullivan. Mr. Luthor, the board is waiting on vote for the funds to allocate to the Smallville clean up sir. And Gabe Sullivan called about a few items at the plant that are in need of repair after the shower. And your father is awake, but not speaking clearly."

Clark and Lois both entered the car and sat down in the plush limo as Clark listened to the driver, and obviously more, drone on about meeting schedules and a special item that had been procured.

"Thank you. Let's go see my father first." Turning to Lois, he was still in partial shock at the abrupt switch. "You think this is another one of Wells little trips? And how am I supposed to sound like Lex. These clothes even itch like evil."

"Just be…stuck up. Pretty sure about Wells, but usually he appears by now. Where do you think we are?" Lois looked out the side window and gasped as the car passed what obviously was something out of the ordinary.

"We're in Smallville, but that looks like we have arrived right after someone else and it looks like something large landed there," Clark whispered over Lois's shoulder as they passed a burnt crater in the middle of a field. Looking back up at the driver, he noticed the strange look on the driver's face. "And I don't think you and I particularly like each other."

"What?"

Clark pointed to driver's strange awed expression before Clark pushed the privacy liner up between the two of them. "Clark, it's freaking two days before our wedding. Why can't we be normal?" Lois sat back in the limo and felt a sudden shiver run through her picturing the last time she was in a Luthor limo. She was going to marry the man. And then he died, then came back to life to haunt her again. And now, her fiancée was him again. Why did the Gods hate her?

The limo stopped in front of Belle Reve Sanitarium and the driver moved around to the side of the car that Clark had sat down on. "Sir, we are here." Clark stepped out of the car with Lois by his side and entered the institution, not ever being somewhere so stale and cold before.

"Your father is still in a catatonic state, but continues to scribble lunacy on the walls. He fights when we take the pen away, so we're hoping that someone will be able to decipher it. Though, we haven't found another since the …" the nurse faded off at the end and Clark expected that she was trying to not get herself in trouble with Lex.

"I'll leave you with him."

Lois watched as the door at the end of the hallway closed and she looked back at Clark as he opened the side door. "Be careful," she said as she tapped the glass. Clark looked at the scraggly old man and wondered how that had led to Lex's downfall. The Luthor they knew didn't even have his father this late in life, but the having a father was hard to picture looking at the man's white eyes.

"What do they say?" Lois asked as Clark walked circles around the man that was Lionel Luthor.

"Something about Zod is coming. Is there a camera in that bag of hers?" Lois handed Clark the camera as he snapped pictures before feeling a hand on his shoulder. "Kal El?"

The man spoke as if he could see right through Lex's skin into Clark's soul. "Kal-El, son. It is coming. You must prepare together with the Clark of this time. You must make him see."

Clark stood staring at the elder Luthor in stunned silence as a man he had never met, never knew existed. Glancing back at Lois, he shook his head slowly thinking the fuzziness would hopefully go away and that the orb from his apartment was leading to his hallucination. "See what?"

"His destiny." The man turned back around and stared at the opposite wall mumbling the words, Krypton all over again.

"How?" Clark asked, but all he received was silence.


	2. Getting to Know Your Surroundings

Getting to Know Your Surroundings – Chapter 2

Chloe dropped the roses on the coffee table and downed her coffee in almost the same movement. She stared at the dead flowers and tried to figure who could be so heartless when the two were supposed to be married. Then it hit her; she would be marrying Lex, not really Lex, but he still existed on the inside. "You ok?" he asked softly.

"Yeah," Chloe blurted as she felt a hand go up her arm. Pulling away from what obviously was some kind of strange compassion, she wasn't interested in sharing it with him. "I was just trying to think about who would do this." Standing up, she finally had lost the ability to hold herself together. "No, I'm not ok. I have no idea why we are here, where we exactly are, I have to marry you and pretend to like it and apparently get to meet parents I didn't even know Lois had. I…am…not… alright."

Lex didn't move from his seat, but watched as Chloe paced the living room, staring at the roses and then glaring at him during her tirade. Picking up her glass, she disappeared into the kitchen and heaved a sigh of relief to be out of the room and away from him for a bit.

Clark in this dimension had grown into a wonderfully handsome man that made it hard to convince herself she was looking at Lex even though she had to pretend to be head over heels for him. She wondered if she should have skipped the drama class her senior year. "DAMN STOP!"

Chloe broke out of her thoughts and heard screaming coming from the living room and raced in to see Lex holding his head and screaming. Racing over to the couch, she tried to pull his hands away from his head. "What's wrong?" she repeated several times.

"The noise. Don't you hear it? It's like the car alarm is going off in the living room." Lex sat back on the couch and beat his head against the side of the couch before loosening the tie he had on. Unbuttoning the top button, he continued to hold his head.

"No, there's no noise."

"No, there's people screaming for help because there's a fire." Lex put his head in between his legs and hoped the noises would fade. Chloe watched him continue to press his hands to his ears as he leaned over. Then it dawned on her; he was Clark Kent and everything that went with Clark.

She glanced around the apartment and hoped that there would be some sign for what Clark did now, or did he still just go about ignoring as much as he could, protecting only those that he loved still. Looking at the dining room table, she looked over the front page of the Daily Planet for that day and gasped. She had never calculated the possibilities. "Holy…," she faded off as she saw the full color picture of Clark flying through the air.

Throwing the paper down on the table, she walked back and sat down with Lex. Taking his hands away from his ears, she held them in hers. "Hey, concentrate on just my voice, blocking out everything else. Lex." She continued to whisper his name and for him to concentrate on her voice. She eventually saw his face and nodded. "Well?"

"It's getting better, but some of the screams are so loud. What the hell?" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as Chloe continued to stare at him. Lex leaned back again on the couch, finally removing the glasses that graced his face. Suddenly, his expression changed from pain to shock as his mouth dropped.

"You figured it out didn't you?" Chloe asked. If there was anyone Lex shouldn't have landed in, Clark Kent was that one body.

"Supersonic hearing?"

"Among other things," Chloe conceded knowing it only be a little more time before the other gifts would show themselves. "Try looking through that wall," Chloe suggested as she pointed at the far wall.

Lex stared at the brick wall and laughed at Chloe and then grabbed the end of the couch as he practically jumped off the couch or floated off the couch as Chloe noticed. Pulling on him slightly, she got him back on the couch. "There's a woman taking a bath in the next room."

"I think that's the apartment next door Lex. And you should quit staring now."

Lex shook his head as he hit the couch and shook his head. "Did I leave the couch just then?" Lex looked nervous, his blank façade that had been even visible through Clark's face almost gone now replaced by pure shock.

"Yeah, he hasn't actually got that power under complete control, at least in our dimension." Lex swallowed and took another deep breath before opening his mouth just to be cut off by Chloe. "Now, do you understand? The Kents didn't want their son turning out to be your family's little science experiment. And when we get out of here, you…"

"I…The voices are getting louder again, screaming for help Superman."

Chloe leaned forward and pulled on his tie slightly revealing something bright blue behind his shirt. Pulling him off the couch, she shook her head that this would be the second time in less than a year that she had to teach 'Clark' how to be himself. She just wondered if Lex had enough good in him to take it on.

"Look, you are going to think that I am nuts, but I have this feeling that if you don't go take care of the screaming in your head, you're going to spend all our nights here in that stance. So," she remarked as she undid a couple of the buttons of his shirt. "I would suggest super speeding out of the clothes and following the voices." Chloe grabbed the newspaper and shoved the picture in his face, smiling from ear to ear.

Lex pulled the side of his shirt away and looked at the strange S on the front of the costume. Then looked at the newspaper. Glaring back at Chloe, he shook his head. "You have to be kidding."

Chloe disappeared into the kitchen and brought the paper back and shoved it in his face. "You have to. People will notice if Superman, not Clark Kent, suddenly disappears from the earth. We have to keep up personas, all of them."

"He's flying. Clark flies?" Lex threw the paper on the floor and continued to stare at the strange costume under his clothes. Lex rolled his eyes and was now starting to find his breath again. Clark Kent, his former best friend, was a savior for the Earth and he himself was in jail because of him. The irony.

"Lex? Are you going?"

"Just change and fly? How would I do that?" He threw up his hands now realizing he was finally in an element that he couldn't control.

"I don't know. I didn't have to teach Clark how to fly that time he got amnesia. I just taught him everything else and then he remembered what you tried to do to him." Chloe stopped and silently eyed Lex and hoped he would at least try. "Try changing really fast."

Lex silently glanced in her direction and bit his lip. Moving his hand down his shirt and then to his pants, Chloe watched as the movement turned into a blur that left a pile of clothes on the floor. "This is ridiculous," Lex commented looking at Clark's body in the spandex suit.

"Can you still hear them screaming?" Lex nodded as Chloe opened the door to the window and sighed back in his direction. "Just listen for the direction and if you can't fly, falling out of the window will hurt the street more than you. Then just run really fast." Lex stood in the middle of the living room with his hands on his hips shaking his head before grabbing his ears again. "GO!"

Rolling his eyes, he jumped out of the window, skidded across the ground and ran a pedestrian off the sidewalk as he got his sense of flight up. Chloe watched the blur go around the corner and leaned back against the window and sighed, hoping that she didn't make a mistake.

***********

"Well?" Lois asked as Clark continued to stare through the glass that was Lionel Luthor. He couldn't imagine the strangeness surrounding all of them. His life in Smallville had been one of simplicity.

"Something about having me teach Clark the ways of his destiny. This is all very weird. Let's get back to his home and see if we can't dig up something that can explain all of this."

Lois nodded and followed Clark out of the building. On the ride back to the Luthor mansion, the phone in Chloe's bag began to ring. Lois stared at it as the name registered Clark and she nodded as she said hello.

"Chloe, I really need your help. You know that little thing about my abilities. There are these freaks of nature holding my family and Lana hostage at the house and I have to break into Level 3 to get some serum. Are you in? I could really use your help."

Lois leaned over where Clark could listen to the rest of the conversation as much as possible. They looked at each wondering why Clark didn't just overpower the others and wait for the authorities. Lois covered the end of the phone and glared at Clark.

"We'll have the driver drop you where we need to and you go with Clark. Figure out what the hell he is talking about and then get back to me. I have this suspicion that you are not exactly on my side."

Lois nodded and then listened to the directions that Clark gave her. Putting the phone back in the purse, she sat back in the limo and watched as it pulled up in front of a small suburbia looking house and the door opened. "I'll call you," she smiled as she climbed out.

Standing on the edge of the street as the limo pulled away, she couldn't remember the last time she had watched her fiancée leave without being able to say goodbye. Again, she thought, I'm two days from my wedding and this happens. At least her other Wells inspired trips she was able to look at Clark; now she had to relive Lex's younger days. Walking back into the house, she sat down on the couch and stared at the pictures on the wall. There was no sign of a mother in the shots.

"Are you ready?" she hears behind her as a whisp of air comes through the house and a younger and slightly brawnier version of her Clark obviously let himself in.

"Tell me what you know and we'll see what we can do to get it taken care of."

***********

Chloe paced in the apartment wondering how Lex was handling himself. She had reason to be concerned. Lex had shown little remorse for anyone or anything it seemed in the past year, least of all since the meteor shower. Now he had to play the hero.

Hearing a whisp of wind and the curtains move, she glanced over and saw the once blue suit covered in soot. She walked over and glanced over his body, lifting the cape and not seeing a scratch on him. "You ok?"

Silently, Lex disappeared into the bedroom of the apartment and reappeared completely dressed. "It's kind of rush, but in a good way." He sat down on the couch and looked over his arms.

He had his arms buried in flames while running through fire to save one woman from the back of the falling building and nothing, not a scratch, not a burn. "It's like something unreal."

"And something very dangerous in the wrong hands. Lex, are you sure you can handle pulling this off. And honestly I worry about what's going to happen when we get back to Smallville. Are…"

Looking at the phone interrupting their conversation, Chloe picked up the phone and quickly held it away from her ear as she watched Lex listening in at the other end. "Nice lady," Lex joked as the woman continued to prattle on about their accommodations, or lack thereof.

Hanging up the phone, he handed her purse to her and opened the door. As they quietly made their way to the hotel, Lex leaned over to Chloe. "Let's just get this over with. Dammit, how does the man block out all the crap?"

"Clark learned to control it. You have to turn off certain channels and only listen to the voices you want to hear." Chloe glanced in Lex's direction, not sure how else to explain Clark's situation. She wished as he did they knew why they were transported there in the first place.

The two walked through the front entrance of the hotel and up to the counter where Lois' mother was about to find herself behind the bars after going off on the man behind the counter. "Why the hell does the president need an entire floor? I want one room. My daughter is getting married in three days, lives in a closet of an apartment and cannot get dressed in that hole."

Lex and Chloe stared at each other and rolled their heads in opposite directions, both thinking maybe there was something to be said for having dead or estranged parents. "Clark," Lex heard behind him before having his body wrapped in the arms of an older woman he could only guess was Martha Kent. With a side glare from Chloe, he strangely returned the gesture.

Seeing Lex now occupied, Chloe walked up to the desk and tapped the woman that was her hysterical mother on the shoulder. "Mother?"

"Ahh, see? This is my daughter Lois Lane, famous reporter? Ring any bells? Now get me my damn room!" The woman continued to scream as a security guard walked up behind the two.

"No, I think I'll just take her back to my place. Really. Thanks," Chloe dropped carefully as another man placed his arm on Ellen's shoulder.

"Come on, we can stay with Lois tonight and look again in the morning," Sam, Lois' father, explained calmly. Ellen huffed and picked up her bags and marched over to the corner that Chloe had left Lex in. Standing now by herself in the busy lobby, she watched as Lex glanced up at her and then back over to the older gentleman that smiled and patted him on the back. Lex broke a smile that if he was in his own body would have actually been real.

Walking back over in his direction, she carefully wrapped her arm into his and smiled up at him as their parents began to argue. "Ahh family." She watched Lex's eyes roll slightly and tried not to laugh. He always wondered what parents would really be like and now he had the chance.

"Lois! Hated your piece that you and Clark wrote on the tax increase. Good luck on the wedding!" Lex looked over in the direction of the voice heard over everyone else and noticed that the lobby had gotten all but silent. Both sets of parents looked over and smiled finally.

"Must be something for the president to know you on a first name basis huh?" Chloe glanced up at Lex and then at her mother.

"Come on; let's get out of here." She pushed her mother in the direction of the front door and pulled Lex down near her. "This is nothing like I had ever pictured Clark's life turning out like."

"You're telling me."

The next morning Chloe stared into the mirror at the wonderous little outfit that she had picked out. She looked at Lois' planner and saw nothing but wedding phone calls and final details scheduled for the day and needed to get out of the apartment. After Lex located his apartment on a map the night before, he and 'his' parents went back to his place. Chloe wanted to call and check in on his progress but figured he would be fine; Lex, after all, was still himself inside that body, as smug and smooth as ever. Still she wondered how well Clark's parents knew their son.

"God, I need a drink," her mother groaned as she walked into the bathroom and shut the door. She noticed her father already making coffee and was glad that some things hadn't changed.

"Your mother may take up drinking again if we don't get a hotel. I almost put her on the fire escape."

"Dad, people shoot cats that whine on fire escapes at night," Chloe dropped without having issues with now having to pretend they were her parents. No wonder Lois always wanted to be away from the folks. "Look, I'm going to meet Clark at the Planet and put a few hours in. I will call with the location of the new hotel as soon as I get one."

Without another word, Chloe was out the door, still shaking her head at the complaints that she could hear even in the hallway.

****

"Good morning, and how was your night?" Chloe asked as she pulled her coat off, eyeing Lex staring at the older computer screen.

Lex turned around and saw the outfit that Chloe was wearing in that body and nearly slipped uncharacteristically out of the chair. "Fine. Actually really nice. The Kents told me about their wedding and how proud of Clark they were and …"

Chloe moved closer to him and whispered, "You have to quit talking in the third person. You are Clark Kent. They are your parents. You can't screw this up for the Lois and Clark of this time."

Pulling out of her grip around his tie, he fixed it, making sure to cover the suit that he had unfortunately had to wear under it. "Ok," he whispered back. "It's not like I didn't spend last night looking for people in a damn building collapse in Malaysia."

Chloe's eyes widened as she looked at the front page story that had run on the Daily Planet that morning. "You?" Lex nodded in her direction as she looked at the AP noted article and then glanced at the blurb on the LNN television station. LNN, she thought, Luthor News Network. "Luthor owns the media?"

"Pretty much all of it. I found out 'you' were offered a position when Luthor first bought the paper. Anyway, I was going to do some more research but Perry asked us to check out this pet store about some frogs – something to tide over your nerves. He figured you and I were here to make us forget about the wedding." Lex leaned forward and whispered, "By the way, are we actually going to get married?"

"Play the role. Now, give me the skinny on the frogs." Lex handed Chloe the piece that Perry had put together so far on the frogs and watched as Chloe seemed to read, inhale, ingest every shred of information on the page. Even through the strange beauty of the short haired brunette, Lex could feel a power of knowledge that Chloe possessed that was exponentially more than her cousin from the first time he met her just a few days ago.

Lois in their world wasn't passionate in the same way Chloe was. It was hard to picture Lois Lane being this same woman that Clark Kent fell for. Jostled out of his thoughts, Chloe grabbed him by the lapel and pulled him out of the chair. "Let's go check out the store."

With a strange smile plastered on his face, he followed Chloe with more interest in seeing how the lady's mind worked than the story that she was following. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard faking a wedding after all.

***********

Clark and 'Chloe' pulled up in front of what looked like a now empty building on the Luthorcorp lot and Clark stared blankly into the fields and around the grounds of the plant. "It's not like Lex to not have security surrounding his plants, especially if this is supposed to be something top secret. Why would I have to come if there's nothing to hold back the others?"

Lois turned and looked as she could tell Clark wanted to desperately look around with his super sight to check out things in true detail. Unbeknownst to Clark, 'Lex' had found his way back to the mansion and had ordered the security to early lunch breaks. The text message simply read, "go."

"Maybe it's a trap."

"Yeah, it has Luthor written all over it," Clark drolly answered as he and Chloe made their way down the stairs and into the main floor of the facility. The facility as they found on the Luthorcorp schematics on Chloe's computer had very little labeled and hoped that they were actually looking at what Clark was sent for.

"Tell me more about what's going on?" Chloe asked, not exactly sure what the Clark of this dimension was involved in.

"Lana and my parents are being held by several mutants that have extraordinary abilities and we have to get into the plant to find the serum that will keep my parents from harm. And you know what happened to my powers."

Chloe stopped before reaching the door that looked as if it was overly fortified and she wasn't sure even with Clark's advantage of playing Lex could get them in and out safely. "Wait. What's the ability?"

"He can control electrical current. He uses it as a power source and has two others with him that can create a force field."

Lois turned her head and was hoping that the wonderful man that she was marrying had not actually been this dense in his younger years. "Electrical current. I have another idea."

'Chloe' turned from the door and started back toward the car and away from the constant protests of Clark Kent. Stopping at the car, she whirled around and stared at Clark. "Why are we breaking and entering anyhow? Just go ask Lex to let you in. Explain the situation. Besides, this is exactly the reason you have to have your powers back."

Clark stopped and stared at 'Chloe.' "First, the ones I love are in danger and I have to put them first and I'm not going to Lex about my family, not again. He has done enough – you said yourself at the barnraising that Lex had been at Belle Reve when these mutants got loose. He's testing me; this was all planned."

Lois leaned back against the car and now started to understand. She wondered how Clark and Lex had even known each other and now started seeing the biases already growing deep inside this young Clark. She understood the catatonic man's concern that this Clark would never make it to his true destiny because he had already found his enemy at home.

"Fine," she turned back toward the building. Following Clark's lead back to the area where they both suspected Level 3 laid from the schematics, she stared at the door and then tried the handle. Praying with every ounce of her soul, she hoped that her Clark could play a cool enough Lex Luthor to make things happen in the way they needed.

Pulling on the handle, the door popped opened to reveal vials of green serum that she desperately wanted to get away from. Clark entered the small vault, still his mouth gaping with surprise that something was just readily and available for the taking. Walking up to the vials, he reached out as the shock singed his shirt and burned his arm.

"See, we have to try something else. Didn't you say the man had electrical abilities?"

Clark nodded as they attempted to sneak out of the plant, now seeing some guards returning on duty as if programmed to give them enough time to get away. "Then you have another option," Lois pointed out as they got back in the car and headed toward the Kents.

The two headed back to the Kent farm that looked strangely like the house that her Clark grew up in, but very different. There was a hole in the side of the house for one. Shocked, she remembered the crater they had passed in the field and knew that was one other mystery they had to figure out.

Clark turned off the key and headed up to the house through the sheriff and easily knocked on the door. She watched as the door closed behind him and she leaned over. "Can you call and have the power shut off?"

The sheriff looked at her strangely. "Look, I have it on Clark's authority that if you shut down the power that at least one of the men in there will be without powers. And if one can be taken down, the others are his followers, so just please pick up your little radio there on your shoulder and call the power company."

Lois breathed a sigh of relief several minutes later when the power was cut out and the field fell. The sheriff glanced at her and smiled as the deputies ran up the stairs to apprehend the mutants. She watched as a haggard looking Clark walked down the back steps of the house and toward the car. "Where are you going?"

"To take care of a loose end." Lois had only one guess at the loose end and wasn't about to miss the opportunity of Clark meeting his nemesis, and her fiancée.


	3. When Clarks Collide

Chapter 3 – A Frog Meets the Princess / When Clarks Collide

Lex sat in the library of the oversized mansion and stared at the computer. He couldn't barely make heads or tails of the coding that was created to get into the system too much, but had managed to get some information off the main Luthorcorp server. None of which explained the whereabouts of a certain spaceship or a reasoning behind Lionel Luthor's state. Running his hand along the body's bald head, he shivered remembering when he had last picked up Lex Luthor and thrown him in jail in their dimension. And he thought things were settling down.

"Clark, just hold on. There could be another explanation."

"No Chloe, he knows what he's doing," Clark pulled out of her grip. Even knowing he was without his powers, she wasn't sure if 'Lex' was safe against him – he was still a big guy.

Clark barged through the doors as Lex rose from the seat behind the desk, still confused about how to get access to all the files although he had found the video feed and knew that 'Chloe' was ok. The last thing he wanted was for her to get hurt.

"Clark, is everyone alright?" Lex asked as he saw Chloe behind Clark right before he saw a fist fly up a knock him to the ground. Looking behind him, he heard a yelp from Chloe as she pulled on Clark again.

"No!"

"What are you doing?" Lex asked as Clark glared down at him, obviously upset that he had anything to do with his condition or what happened on the farm. Lex, on the other hand, was totally confused.

"What I should have done a long time ago." Clark pulled Lex up from the floor and threw him across the room.

"Clark stop this now! Just listen! Shut up and get your hands off him."

Clark whipped around and stared at Chloe, "I thought you would be the last one defending him Chloe, after what he did to you in the meteor shower. He deserves what's coming to him."

Clark looked back in Lex's direction as he continued to pull himself up off the floor. "You were at Belle Reve the morning those lunatics escaped. You set me up you – you helped them somehow didn't you?"

Clark eased over to where Lex was still on the ground, glancing back in Chloe's direction, now with blood dripping from one of his nostrils.

"Clark, I beg you, listen to him please." Clark glanced back at Chloe and saw the look she gave Lex. Maybe her appearance in the caves along with Lex was more a setup than trap. Maybe she was helping him – still feeding him information about him years after he thought they had gotten past her inroads with Lionel Luthor.

"What did you promise them Lex? Those lunatics? Enough serum to last them the rest of their lives?"

"You're being irrational – I have no idea what you are talking about," Lex choked out as he sat up on one knee and then pulled himself up from the ground.

"This whole thing was a set up – a test. And to do it, you put Lana and my family in danger you bastard."

"Clark," Lex appealed just to get another fist to the other side of his face. Groaning, he held himself up from completey hitting the ground and moaned.

"I thought we could start over Lex, but you're too obsessed with the past. With me. But I'm different now and I'm through playing games with you. So why don't you want to test me, you want to see what I'm made of, do it yourself you coward."

Clark and Lex eyed each other.

If his head didn't spin so much, Lex would have realized that this Clark had much more pent up frustration about Lana, his family, his surroundings than he did as a child. Smallville had been much simpler, the largest care had been the spaceship and a few visits from Krytptonian images.

Chloe walked over by Clark and grabbed at his arm as Lex returned to an upright position. "Clark he can explain. We can explain."

Pulling out of her grip, Clark followed every footstep that Lex took around toward the desk with disgust. Lex turned and saw Clark grimace before reaching back for another punch and instead wielded one of his own. Not as strong a punch as he could throw normally, his fist immediately felt on fire as he looked at Clark.

Clark didn't hit the ground but popped his head back up as Lex stared at him bleeding from the lip. He glanced over at Chloe as she tried to nod that things weren't exactly as they seemed. Lex was speechless. His other self was … bleeding.

"Satisfied?" Clark asked as he wiped the corner of his lip with his hand and smiled almost satisfactorily as he started past Lex and towards the door.

"Wait! We have to talk." Clark turned and looked at Lex as he still eyed the blood on his hand from Clark and then glanced at Chloe.

***********

"Here it is. Phil's Exotic Pet Palace." Chloe pointed out as Lex pulled the car over into the only remaining parking place. Chloe was something different than he had expected. She had melded into her character and his as well better than he had expected. He had always pictured Chloe was the wild, go off the deep end kind that she had stated out as a reporter. He silently wondered if any street credibility that she got from being Lois Lane would rub off when they returned. Sitting in the car, the thought of getting returned ever crossed his mind.

"Earth to Clark," Chloe stated out loud, hoping him hear his 'other' name would knock him into the present tense, or not. Pinching him in the arm, she remembered he was Clark and wouldn't feel it. "Lex!"

"Sorry, come on."

Lex silently followed Chloe around as she talked the man in the pet shop, "The Dopple Buffo frogs are from the tropics and had been imported mainly as pets but recently scientists figured out that the DNA from these guys could be grafted to another animals, it would produce a perfect biological copy of the second animal."

Lex's head popped up and turned in the direction of the pet shop owner. Trying to seem more interested in the story than the actuality of having an experiment very similar lying in wait for the right type of technology to come along. He hardly could believe that it might already be there, years earlier than he thought. "A clone?"

"You mean to clone them?" Chloe asked.

"Yes, but so far it only work on mice as far as he research states," the pet store owner answered matter-of-factly.

"So the only thing that was taken were these frogs?"

"Yes, none of the more exotic pets were taken. I can't understand why that would be the case, but the door had been jimmied open when I got here about seven this morning."

"Is there anything else you can tell us about these frogs?" Lex's curiosity was now in full swing. He paid immense amounts of money to researchers and scientists in his dimension to find a pet store owner knew more than billions of dollars could produce. He thought carefully about swiping one himself.

"Just they have an appetite that seems to never end. Expensive to care for as pets as they seem to want to eat all the time. And if you don't feed them, they turn on each other."

Lex and Chloe started back to the car as Lex continued to stare at the little green frogs wondering how all his experiments had failed simply because of that little green amphibian. Then again, maybe the frogs were now extinct in their realm. Starting the car, he looked over at Chloe. "What?"

"You…what's going on Lex? I want to talk about what you're thinking right now." Chloe knew that there was something else going on in his brain.

"Nothing."

"Spit it out Lex. You happen to not be in your own body so your face is giving away more than you would hope." Lex looked over at the drawn lines on the body Chloe was in and put his hand on the back of her head, running his fingers through her hair. "Lex."

"Lois," he whispered. "It's nothing. Just thinking about the uses of those frogs."

"Yeah, and we have to figure out they are so important. And why do you keep running your fingers through my hair?" Chloe barked as a question but in truth she hoped Lex couldn't feel her as she leaned into his hand. It had been awhile since someone had paid her as much attention as Lex was paying her, either to keep up the act or… no, not Lex. It's an act. "Come on, let's get going on this article."

Lex dropped his hand and looked across the street from the rear view mirror and then back at the angle of the pet store. He looked over at Chloe who was presently buried in Lois day planner. He wondered after seeing Clark's same day planner how either of them got any time to be together. He wondered how Clark in their world would ever adjust to being something more than a farmer at his rate.

"What?"

"Hear me out and I'm not the investigative journalist but don't banks have hidden cameras on their ATM's?" Chloe looked behind her from both directions eyeing the banks on either opposite corners. "You think Sullivan hacking skills at Lois' computer might be able to pull up something that the shop clerk couldn't see?"

Chloe turned her hair, whipping the short brunette cut around and smirked in Lex's direction. "You know, you might end up not so bad after… what do you hear?" She had seen that look before and saw Lex getting better at controlling it, much faster than Clark even did.

"Fire three blocks over. Take the wheel – I'll meet you back at the Planet building." He smiled as Chloe jokingly yanked on his tie. "I'm getting better at this."

"Yes, you are and meet me at the church in an hour instead," she smiled and shooed him away as she got out of the car and changed to the driver side. She watched as the body of Clark Kent disappeared around the corner and wondered how Lex's fragile psyche was really doing in that body.

Chapter 3 Part 2

Clark turned and stared at Lex and Chloe who both stood so close together he would swear they were a couple. The Chloe that had learned his secret only a few weeks earlier was now obviously more in bed with the devil than Clark first surmised. "Chloe, if you stay here with Lex then…" he trailed. "He's dangerous – can't you see he put everyone in harm's way today just to get to a secret that he thinks he knows."

Lois looked at her Clark in Lex's body and wrapped her arm tighter in his and nodded. "Clark," Lex spoke slow and low. "I know this seems awkward but Chloe was there with me at Belle Reve to see my father earlier today, before she went with you to the lab."

"What?" Clark moved closer as to take another swing, but Lex grabbed Chloe and shoved her behind him.

"Clark, you have to listen to me. My father – he's not well. He drawing these strange pictures on the wall. Look," Lex grabbed the laptop on the desk and closed the feed on the laboratory as Clark glanced at it and glared at him.

Clark leaned in and stared that the strange symbols that were all over the padded walls of Lionel Luthor's cell. "What did he tell you? And how do you think this is tied to me?"

Lex and Chloe both stared at Clark and could see the worry and angst that crossed his face. He didn't want any Luthor, especially Lex finding out any information about his background. But there it was on Lex's computer, produced by the same man that had tried to destroy his own son. "Clark, I think you should sit down."

Clark felt of his lip again as Chloe disappeared down the monstrous hall to find a bathroom and something to clean both of their faces. She smiled to herself about the strange outcome and irony of the Lex/Clark showdown. Still she wondered how well the obviously more emotionally fragile Clark Kent in Smallville would take looking at himself in Lex's body.

"Hi, could you please bring a first aid kit to the library?" she asked as the one person she saw walking through the mansion passed her without asking who she even was. Maybe she and Lex were enough on speaking terms that people didn't care or was his security here that horrible. She remembered even before she almost married Lex in her dimension that he would at least have a couple of watchdog servants at his heels.

Returning to the study, Lex and Clark both still leaned over the laptop on the coffee table and stared at the symbols. Tripping on the carpet, Lex stood up and caught Chloe before Clark got up and then stared at the floor. Pulling the rug back, they all stared at the same symbol that now was covered by on ornately colored rug. Clark, completely thrown by the symbol etched in the floor, sat down.

"So, I'm sitting. You have my attention,"

Chloe sat next to Lex and handed Clark a towel for his mouth as soon as the woman she had spoken to walked in and handed both bleeding men a warm wash cloth and the first aid kit. "Anything else?"

"No, thank you," Lex answered as the woman looked at him strangely after he thanked her and hurried out, closing the door behind her. Chloe reached up and dabbed Lex's lip and then carefully angled Clark's hand toward his mouth corner in order to get the right spot.

Lex looked over at Chloe confused. "She looked at me as if she didn't know me."

"What are you talking about Lex? You hired these people – they're scared of you."

Lex nodded at the biting words that came from Clark's mouth and decided not to let the woman's behavior bother him. "That may be the case." Lex leaned forward as Clark moved further back in the seat before eyeing Chloe's hand wrapping around his arm and squeezing his knee. He was going to be sick.

"This is going to be nearly hard to believe and I would really like to keep this as quiet as possible, say you and only you know about it, but I want you to assist me. I think my father is actually meaning to talk to you Clark."

Lex sat back in the leather seat against Chloe's arm and watched as Clark slunk in the seat across from him. He watched Clark eye him, knowing that it would be hard to prove much about his not being Lex Luthor beyond possibly showing him. "How do I know you're not just trying another game?"

"Clark, look. I know there are some weird things that you are directly connected to in this town and I have probably done my share of sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. And from the way you came in today, I have no doubt that this was the last thing you expected, but I have something you need to see."

"What? Another room with my family pictures hanging on the walls around a mangled car you swear I ripped the hood off of. No thank you. As you can see, I'm a normal Kansas farmboy, and I'm done with you."

Lex's eyes shot up from his momentary gaze beyond Chloe's blond hair to the soul he could still feel from his Lois in her body. Looking back at Clark, he slid out of the strange hold that Chloe had on him and stood up to meet Clark's stance. "I don't think you get it Clark. This is not a request anymore." Lex crossed his arms and stood silently as Clark started toward the library door.

"Say something," Chloe prodded as Clark slightly stopped and then started again. He wasn't going to fall into Lex's trap as Chloe obviously had. He learned to trust the wrong people and that would be the last time.

Lex dropped his arms and glanced at her. Without thinking, he raised his voice as the boy started around the corner of the door, "Kal-El." And Clark turned.

**********

The door opened to the Jeep and Chloe looked over as 'Clark' was getting back into the car. "I thought you were going to meet me at the church," Chloe sounded snide.

"I went by the church that you gave me the address to and you weren't there. So, I looked around. Funny that you happen to be the one car behind the accident." Chloe just glared at Lex wishing she could just rip the rest of that wavy hair out of his head where she knew it was really him. He was being too calm and almost delightful to really be the Lex Luthor from Smallville. Could he really be enjoying this?

"Just, see what you can do," Chloe nervously chided, trying not to look too comfortable with him. Lex looked at her and then followed her eyes to accident in front of them.

"I wonder if he ever gets tired of being told what to do or being begged for help."

"Quit being sour," she rolled her eyes and honked the horn again as she watched Lex move cars around like toys, blurring in and out in a wave of red and blue. She shook her head at the thought that a few weeks ago they were staring each other down in the middle of a Smallville cave as she tried to explain away a mysterious light before knocking him out. Now, he encompassed most of what the man that Clark would have to become.

Opening the car door again, he smirked as Chloe rolled her eyes and stepped on the gas. Lex groaned and looked at himself in the mirror. Clark turned out handsome and lucky. How could he have made such bad errors in judgment? Leaning against the back of the seat he looked over as the phone rang.

"Hello. Yes mother. Yes mother. No mother, I don't know why Clark's mother changed the flowers – why don't you ask her. I don't care what color they are. Look, we're parking right now." Chloe closed the phone and stared over at Lex. "Come on."

Meeting her on the front steps of the church, Lex grabbed her gently by the arm and whispered in her ear, "Remember you told me to play the part? You're kind of scaring me how tense you are. This isn't our wedding – just go with it. Ok?"

Chloe looked up and saw past the dark brown hair and brown eyes to see Lex, his reassurance that he used to have for her when she had worked with him during his father's ordeal. Chloe nodded and softly smiled before taking a deep breath. She could feel his hand at the small of her back as they climbed the stairs to the door that was now opening.

"Thank the heavens. I think Cindy is going to drive me mad, but not as mad as you are about to drive your mother," Sam explained to his daughter. Ellen already started in on 'Lois' before the double door to the church was even open. Lex looked up and watched as the men stood around listening as an overly animal print clad woman continued to babble about multiple weddings and an overly adventurous streak. If he was in Smallville, the woman might have been his next wife, barring the bright red hair and constant talking.

"Do you want me to die an early death or just start drinking again?" she asked as Lex and Chloe started down the aisle. Chloe could feel the gently nudge of her 'father's' hand on her shoulder to calm her and another small hand on her back to ease her again. She didn't exactly flinch but the strange kindness that Lex was starting to push on her was hard to place. It had been there, the cautionary peace, once before but it had been awhile.

"Hello, hello, hello, I'm Reverend Bob. I hear we are waiting for the lovely couple, who is coming up the aisle as I can see." The pastor stood in the middle of the church and smiled. Lex looked him once over and realized that Lois and Clark must not have thought this completely through or perhaps were saving money because the man in the not so well tailored blue suit looked like he mail ordered his certificate. Words of God from this man's mouth would be about as believable as his father's.

"I will be the host for you this afternoon. Now, what are the seven scariest words in the English language?" Seeing the small crowd of people turning up their noses, he tried to plod them on. "Come on…I now pronounce you man and wife."

"Funny," Jimmy responded before Lex looked in his direction and he quickly closed his mouth.

"How many brides does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

"I don't know," Cindy answered, actually amused. Chloe pinched Lex and rolled her eyes as she watched both sets of parents actually blush and try to forget they were in the House of God.

"Neither do they, that's why they have wedding coordinators." The preacher laughed insanely as the rest of the group sighed miserably.

"Don't you have a meeting sir? The reason for moving up the time on the rehearsal?" Lex spit out almost venomously, earning a harsh look from his mother, not at this point he was concerned. There were times he could easily be Clark, but this man brought out his mere hatred of the less educated.

"Ahh, I was trying out my material for my interview at the cruise lines." Chloe opened her mouth as Lex gently covered it, knowing that whatever came next from her would require restraint of her and the elder Lane. "Well, then let's start with the ceremony...the terrified bachelor here."

Lex moved into a place he had already learned too well. He laughed to himself while looking back over at Chloe and Lois' parents that at least this time she wouldn't kill him and the annulment would hopefully be them being beamed back to their dimension, or something along those lines. "And the best man, wondering if you remember the ring or not," he commented as Jimmy moved into position.

"Then the organ will play the music and so forth and then the groom's mama and then the groom's dada. Then the bride's mommy and the bridesmaids and the maid of honor, who is?"

Chloe looked over at Ellen and then at the Cindy. "We're still waiting on Lucy," Chloe smiled in Ellen disgusted look. Chloe glanced up to Lex and saw him thinking of the Lucy Lane that had swept into and out of Smallville, complete with several stacks of his own money.

"Hey, what's the difference in a maid of honor and a maid's honor?" Chloe rolled her eyes again as Lex just pinched his temples since the glasses were already pinching his nose. "About seven beers."

"Could we just kind of get on with this please?" Lex was now past annoyed. Chloe could even see it in the lines in Clark's face. Lines that for sure would be evident along with a swift kick to the streets if he had been in charge. But he knew better, she knew. Taking a deep breath, she smiled up at him and took a deep silent breath, reminding him what he had told her outside the church.

The preacher gave in and continued the rest of the rehearsal as if nothing was out of place.

**********

"Sir, yes sir. The plan went of without a hitch. Yes, the president is resting comfortably. Wonderful secret passages that are built into this fantastic hotel sir." The man on the phone sounded as if he couldn't shove his foot any further up the receiver's ass as to kiss to.

Hanging up the phone after his last few words, the doctor sat on the edge of the bed in the hotel suite and watched the latest presidential press conference, smiling to himself. As long as the man on the screen stuck to script, the good doctor didn't have to worry about his head.

"As in contrast to my previous proposal, I have decided to support the proposed tax decrease for the next year," the president explained on the television to a room full of hands that went up.

Lex sat across from Chloe back at the Planet after finally losing her mother somewhere around announcing she didn't care about doves. "I was listening to the news this morning and they were talking about a tax increase. You find that odd?"

"Maybe that nice suite he had for himself at the hotel had something to do with his change of heart. God, I don't even know why I care where these people sleep except for the small fact I would like for us to have time to work all this stuff out without parents we don't know breathing down our necks." Chloe slumped in the chair across the desks from Lex and watched as he shook his head.

"Actually the Kents aren't that bad. Dramatic improvement for me." Chloe glanced at him disgustedly. "Fine, I'll try the hotel again."

Chloe stared back at the stack of random photos on the desk in front of her and glanced over at Lex. He looked so strange and yet calmer in the body he know possessed. Possessed. It was weird thinking she was all her except for the organs and body. Still, being a well known reporter was nice even if it was her cousin.

Lex hung up the phone and moved around the corner of Chloe's desk. "I don't like that look. I've seen it – when Clark almost missed the hearing."

"Booked solid. And the airline isn't answering – voice mail."

"Perfect. I don't even know this Lucy and she's causing me problems." Chloe went back to staring at the pictures and shuddered slightly as she felt Lex's hand slightly clasp her shoulder as he leaned over her chair. Turning her head to the side, he wasn't leaning close enough to meet her face but instead giving her a mouth full of tie.

It was nice. He smelled good and the grip was more of a balancing act than anything else, at least that was what she would convince herself of. Still, she couldn't help but wonder what "you may now kiss the bride" would lead to. Through it all, deep down, she hadn't forgotten the last two weeks and how he treated her.

Staring seemed to do the trick. Pointing at the picture in front of her that Lex just laid down, she pointed. "Who's that?" The picture was taken around sunrise with just enough light to make a blur look like something solid. "Use your," she stopped and tugged on the glasses slightly.

She almost wanted to laugh picturing Clark in glasses as she watched him looked over the rims. "The president's personal assistant and the head of the secret service?"

Chloe looked up at Lex over her shoulder and smiled. "This is soooo much better than the Wall of Weird," she commented with an almost giddy cackle in her voice. Standing up under his grip, his hand slid to her waist automatically as they both screamed for Jimmy.


	4. Finding Your Place in the World

Chapter 4 – Finding Your Place in the World

Clark turned and stared at Lex. Stunned was the only word that could come to mind after hearing Lex drop his birthname right in front of him. If Lex knew anything about him, he was sure after hearing from his parents about the Luthors that Lex would never let anything slip.

Clark looked over in Chloe's direction and she seemed unmoved by Lex's bold two-syllable statement. "Chloe?"

"I didn't tell him anything Clark. In fact, there's a lot more to the story than meets the eye. And it would do you some good to listen without judging." Chloe sat down on the couch followed by Lex who pointed out the chair across from the coffee table.

Clark looked down at the two sitting obviously nervously next to each other on the couch. Something didn't sit quite well in Clark's eyes. He couldn't figure if it was the fact that Lex and Chloe were holding hands like it was a security blanket or the fact that Lex looked more nervous than Clark remembered him ever being.

Sitting down on the couch, he nodded and waited until Lex made eye contact. Then he looked at Chloe, "So how much do we say?"

"We have to trust him," Chloe half-heartedly smiled in Lex's direction before letting out an uncomfortable sigh. Turning then to Clark, "I know this is a real tense situation and I'm not really sure why. I know things have happened here that are indescribable and not completely understandable to us. Just understand that whatever we discuss here can't be discussed beyond these doors, including with your folks."

Clark leaned in confused. He stared at Chloe in disbelief. How could he not talk to his parents, much less about the strange obvious side effect of whatever was in Luthorcorp labs. Chloe was acting strange. "You're not really sure why?" Clark stopped and nodded his head in a strange way before glancing in Lex's direction. He still looked uncomfortable.

Lex glanced over at Chloe and nodded in silence. Leaning over the couch and taking a deep breath, he stared down Clark. "Clark, we're not exactly who you think we are." Lex stopped and bit his lip at the odd stare he was getting from Clark. "We are actually from another dimension. It's hard to explain in detail but for some reason your friends or not so much friends Chloe and Lex, their souls have been switched into our bodies in another dimension. And we're here."

"And you are?" Clark carefully stated, still suspicious.

"Lois Lane and Clark Kent," Chloe dropped.

Clark ran his hands through his hair as he stared at the two. As odd as the whole thing sounded, he now saw the subtle differences that looked nothing like Lex and Chloe. "So you're me in the future and why is Lois with you?"

Chloe shook her head at Lex and Clark could tell he wasn't going to get the whole story. "There are details that we can't share with you, but the important thing is that I think we have a real problem coming to Smallville in your dimension. As I said, Lex's father has been scribbling these items on the walls and basically you need to step up."

"What do you mean step up? If you're me, then just do what you need to do. It's not exactly easy for me to be myself if you know what I mean when my abilities are gone."

Lex glared at Chloe and sighed. They had suspected as soon as the wire sparked that Clark was without his powers. The question was how he would get them back. "We are going to work on ways to restore your abilities. The fact remains I am Lex Luthor's body which only means he is sitting in Clark Kent's body and right now probably realizing your abilities, my abilities. I know its very confusing right now, but we need to take you to see Lex's father. He holds the key."

Clark shook his head as the main doors to the library opened and another woman in a pin skirt sauntered in with a handful of folders. "We had a meeting, and a flight to Metropolis."

Lex looked up and easily slid into a mode that looked frighteningly like the real Lex. Chloe tapped him on the hand and whispered something to Lex before getting up from her seat next to him on the couch. "Clark, I think Lex needs to work."

Clark watched as Chloe motioned to him to follow her out of the double doors. Once in the hall, she leaned in and whispered, "This is where I remind you to not tell anyone else. We told you for the mere reason I think you knowing can assist in whatever we're all going to be up against. At least, what you're up against. But to keep up presentation, it stays between us four."

"Four?"

Chloe stopped before she got to her car parked outside the front door of the mansion. "Lionel Luthor could tell Lex was not his son. He knows. Look, go home and tell your parents and Lana whatever story you want, just leave the truth out of it."

Chloe got in the car and drove off the lot before Clark could process all the information that Chloe and Lex or Lois and Clark had explained to him. Shaking his head as he started back toward his home, he still was puzzled the simple fact of Clark with Lois. Yet, he was thoroughly impressed that the two were doing such a dazzling job of putting up fronts for the rest of the community. Still, the idea that the man that tried to kill Chloe and his own son now knew his secret in what seemed more demented detail than anyone else concerned him. He hoped that they would contact him to soon to see him or get his powers back. From what they already explained, the meteor through his folk's house were just the beginning.

********

"You find all of this unsettling?" Lex leaned back in the chair and continued to flip through pictures scattered on the table as Chloe paced back and forth. "Chloe, Jimmy can do his job. Sit down."

Chloe stared back at Lex and sighed seeing the soft lines of Clark's face mixed with the smirk that Lex normally carried on him. The mix of the two was a contorted cheesy grin that couldn't help but make her chuckle.

"What?"

"You can't pull off the smirk in that body. You just come off looking silly." Chloe sat across the table and stared at the other photos from the ATM camera. "You wonder what's going on back home?"

Lex ran his hand along the edge of the table in a nervous way that Chloe hadn't seen in the past. "I wonder if my father has …" Looking in Chloe's direction, the lines in Lex's head seemed to almost cross. He had almost forgotten that she could possibly remember what he told her. Not that it seemed to matter. The secret he had been hunting for, searching for, destroying people's lives for was already found. And it didn't change him or the person he was presently.

"Lex? What about your father?" Chloe leaned over and touched his hand, knocking Lex out of his trance.

"My father has been drawing these symbols like the ones in the caves on the walls of his cell. His eyes are glazed over. I can't reach him. I think something happened during the shower."

Glancing up at Chloe, he could see her fear. Gripping her fingers in his from across the table, Lex couldn't think of what else to add. Nothing would make either of them feel better or help their situation. Chloe wouldn't make eye contact, and that worried him even more. "You think this is all for us to learn something or for them to fix something we were about to mess up."

"I don't know," Lex whispered barely audible as the door to the conference room flew open.

"You love him still?"

Chloe watched as Lex's eyes glazed over. Clark's eyes still were more telling than Lex would hope they would be.

"I got your…you guys ok? You don't look like a couple a few days from marriage unless that's cold feet. You guys aren't."

Lex let go of Chloe's hand and quickly made his way around the side of the table to put his firm grip on Jimmy's shoulder. "Jimmy, we were just talking. Now what do you have?"

"Get this. The car that you had me look up is rented to a Dr. Mamba. He does research in exotic frogs. I'll see what else I can dig up but Lois, your mom is on line 1."

Jimmy handed the file to Clark and closed the door to the conference room. Taking another glance back, he watched as Lois rolled her eyes as she picked up the phone.

Slamming the phone down, Chloe wanted to scream. If it didn't send shock waves through the ranks of all media she would suggest to just cancel the wedding altogether. "That woman makes me understand the reason for mental institutions." She looked at Lex as he laid the file down and glared at her slightly. "Sorry, I didn't."

"I completely get it. I heard, but you can't blame the mother for the rehearsal dinner going under because the health department closed them down." The corner of Chloe's mouth upturned slightly as she read over Lex's shoulder. "Besides, I think a simple pasta dinner will help. The wine will be definitely not alcoholic."

***********

Clark walked back into what was still a halfway built farmhouse kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table. He hadn't seen or heard from Chloe or Lex, or Lois and Clark, since the day before. With all the thoughts on his mind, he had finished nearly all the repairs on the roof through the night with the help of a floodlamp. Even after hours, he couldn't wrap his head around the strange occurrences that just kept coming.

"Morning Clark." Jonathon stopped and looked at his son's still busted lip and now bloodshot eyes. "You know you can't work like you're used to. Eventually the body will give out and need rest. What exactly happened at Lex's that sent you into this much thought?"

Clark could hear both voices adamantly explaining in his head to not get his folks involved. He kept little from them but knew that this was something way more different. Explaining one would lead to explaining Lionel and speculating on what would happen when the real Lex returned, if he ever did. "Its not that. I guess I'm worried about what come next. The last meteor shower brought me; what did this one bring?"

Jonathon grabbed his son on the shoulder and gripped him tight, knowing now that Clark could feel it. "We will take it day by day as we've always done. And things have always worked out for some reason. Now go get some rest."

Clark slipped silently out of his father's grip and started back out the door and toward the barn. "He's going wear himself out Jonathon," Martha spoke quietly from the hall as Jonathon leaned on the doorframe and watched Clark disappear into the barn.

About an hour later, Chloe walked through the entrance of the barn. After spending a good hour in the house with Clark's parents, she knew to be cautious. He had already seemed out of sorts in front of the two. And to think of it, they didn't seem like they were acting strange as well. "Clark? Your dad said that you were out here and…Clark? CLARK!"

********

Lex hugged his newly adopted parents. Still, having another person's arms around him seemed strange. He hoped that he was pulling of his part well. "Goodnight you guys. We'll see you in the morning." Jonathon walked out the door and started toward the entrance to the apartment building. "Martha, come on."

"I know. Goodnight honey," she bittersweetly let on as she hugged her son once more. "So grown up," she quietly said as she gripped his arms in her small hands. Lex swallowed and broke a small smile as the older woman looked in his eyes and was easily trying to hide her tears of pride and happiness. Lex couldn't help his grin growing as she continued to wave goodnight as she and Jonathon went down the main stairs.

Closing the door, he turned and looked over at Chloe, who had taken up refuge in cleaning the dishes. "It's an awesome feeling isn't it?"

"Yeah, but not one either one of us have really experienced." Lex picked up a plate and stared at it.

"Show off. You know there is a towel that you can dry them with. Or is that just a little bit beneath the Lex Luthor type?" Chloe smiled and handed him another dish, watching slightly irritated as Lex grinned and heat dried the next plate.

"Some of these things that Clark has the ability to do he probably hasn't even scratched the surface of back home." Lex finished up the last set of dishes and sat down on the couch as Chloe continued putting odds and ends away in the kitchen.

Sitting down on the couch with him, she handed him a glass of wine that they had kept well hidden from her mother. The nightmare started as she hit the door complaining about the music that she and Clark had picked for the first dance. "When we return, you can't go telling Clark everything that he should be doing. I have a feeling the way he has been raised and the things he has gone through are for a reason. Us barging in and explaining his destiny would probably not be the wisest thing. Just remember that, ok?"

"Well put." Lex leaned back and threw his arm around the back of Chloe. "So have you given any more thought to the next couple of days? What's our strategy?"

Chloe leaned back in the couch, careful to stay out of Lex's arm length and within clear shot of his face. It was a mission, not the time to blur the lines of enemies, friends, or lovers. "I though we could go check out this Dr. Mamba tomorrow and go form there. I mean it seems the wedding will either happen or not happen, although this Lois and Clark have had the worst of luck."

Lex smiled and sipped another drink from the wine glass. He hadn't partaken in such good wine with a woman without anything else planned in months. Strangely, his comfort with Chloe was more natural than he had in months too, even though he could tell she visibly wanted to have nothing to do with her.

The two sat in a comfortable silence until the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" Chloe said as Lex took off the glasses that he still wore most of the day for the added appearance, although he couldn't understand how that would hide Clark's identity.

Chloe opened the door and felt her foot bump the box. Picking up the box, she put it on the table and pointed at Lex. "Do your eye thingy."

"I'm pretty sure Clark has a better term than eye thingy." Chloe glared at him as he xrayed the box and shrugged. "It looks safe, just a little beaten up," he added as Chloe picked up the top of the box.

"Oh wow," Chloe gasped as Lex looked at the top of what looked like a wedding cake with the groom still standing and the bride face planted squarely in the middle of the cake with her back broken. Chloe picked up the small note attached and read it to herself. "Apparently Lois and Clark have serious enemies still out to make a joke." Reading the card aloud, she handed it to Lex. "If Lois marries Clark, it will be the beginning of the end."


	5. Momentous

Chapter 5 - Momentous

Chloe wrapped her hands around Clark's head and continued calling his name. His chest was barely rising and falling as he laid in her arms in he middle of the barn. After looking around her, she saw the broken banister and knew he had passed out.

"Clark, did Chloe find...Clark?" Jonathon walked into the barn and stopped after seeing the wood from the banister strewn about. Kneeling down next to Chloe, he ran his hand down his son's legs and checked his pulse. "Come on, let's get him inside."

Lifting him up, Jonathon carried most of Clark's weight on his shoulders as Chloe and he both called for Martha. Coming out of the farmhouse, she inhaled in worry and supported the side that Chloe already had. The three barely could keep Clark's feet from dragging the ground as they moved him to the couch and put him down.

"He's completely worn out," Chloe commented, knowing that his present condition was not going to assist them in work that had to be done. Sitting in the chair across from the couch, she could see the softness in the younger Clark's face. She had only seen that look when her Clark had been sick. It was a look that she never wanted to see again.

Cutting her out of her daze as Clark's parent attended to him, Chloe pulled her phone out of her pocket and stepped outside the house. "Clark passed out," Lois stated, the worry now not covered up by Lois' true crack in her voice.

Clark could tell his Lois was concerned. Rubbing his bald head, he pulled his hand away from it and looked at the couch in the study at the Luthor mansion. He wondered how much weirder it could get. "Lois, I need you to get the Kent's to let you bring Clark to the caves. At least that is what Lionel is saying."

"What Lionel is saying?" Lois sounded confused.

"Yes, he apparently came to life when Clark fell. Instinct or something. I can't truly explain it, but he showed up here at the mansion, explained that we were losing Clark, and that he must be returned to fortress. Can you get him away from his parents?" Clark stared over at what was Lex's real father, right now a shell of a man that was instead a vessel for his own father.

"His parents seem to be very protective of him at the moment." Lois turned and looked in the direction of the living room and heard Martha's breath hitch as Clark's chest stopped rising. "Clark, he's..."

"I'll meet you at the caves. Lionel just left, he should be there..."

"Now, he's here now." Lois hung up the phone and opened the door for the old man. Martha and Jonathon both looked up from their son's side. His body was now not moving in any capacity.

"Lionel Luthor, this is the wrong time to be playing more games. You were in the hospital the last thing I heard." Jonathon squeezed his wife's hand as glared in Chloe's direction. There was little he had understood of the last few days, but Luthor in his house was unacceptable.

"I must take your son," the older man simply said as he ignored Jonathon's stance and Martha's grip on her son.

"The hell you will!" Jonathon pushed on the older man and was met by what felt like a wall that shoved him back. Lionel simply pulled Martha back, picked up Clark's limp body and disappeared out the door.

Chloe stood in the living room and watched as Martha and Jonathon stared in awe as the older Luthor disappeared out the front door at Clark's speed with their son in his hands. "Chloe, what is going on?"

"Clark's going to be ok and then he's going to apparently save us all."

***********

Chloe waited in Clark's apartment and paced. She stared at the cake and wondered who could possibly hate two reporters enough to destroy them. Looking up, she watched as Lex Luthor in Clark's body appeared again. "Anything?"

"Whoever brought that cake is long gone, but I heard something on the radio next door." Stopping in the middle of the floor, he gently covered Chloe's mouth with one finger and listened.

"What?"

"A tsunami in India," Lex answered. Chloe watched his confusion as he looked at the box they had just received and then the radio.

"Go." He looked back at Chloe after she quietly answered. "This is what you do, what Clark does, what they've learned to balance." Chloe walked over and sat down in front of the destroyed wedding cake. "It's more than either one of us would have ever imagined for him, but we have to do our part."

Lex walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. "And I thought I had the busy job, but apparently his appearance at every problem in Smallville is just practice." A moment of silence passed between the two as Chloe stood up and stared at the man that was in Clark's body. "He saved my life; he pulled the top of the Porsche off and really saved my life."

Chloe swallowed, knowing that Lex was now retracing everything Clark had done since they had met. Putting her hands on both his arms, she gazed at him as he looked down at her. "And now you have to save his. Go."

Lex grinned as he pulled away and spun into the costume. He admitted he liked the feel of the wind against the suit. It beat the fast cars anytime. Glancing over at the coffee table, he looked back at Chloe. He knew her and what she was capable of even in Smallville. Now she had a bigger name and bigger stage and more room to get in trouble.

"Stay here tonight. Don't do anything foolish. Don't make me have to come back and save you. Ok?" The reassuring nod from Chloe before he disappeared out the door in a blur was not one of her best. Lex fully expected to come back to 'Lois Lane Missing' headline.

Chloe watched as the man left and wondered how much of this either of them would remember or be able to learn from when they returned. Sitting down next to the cake, she thought about trying the cake, thinking the person out to kill them probably poisoned the cake too. Laughing to herself, she leaned back as the phone rang.

"Hey Jimmy," she said as she answered, still not happy to see Jimmy with her world job. "Sure. Dr. Mamba checked in where? Thanks." Hanging up the phone, Chloe stared at the cake and then could hear Lex's words in her head.

"Nothing foolish. Just an interview, something you won't give me," she commented as she walked out of Clark's apartment.

Walking up to the door in the Metropolis Diamond Hotel, Chloe first listened to hear strange samba music coming from the inside of the suite. She slightly snarled seeing the room was obviously one of the ones Lois and Clark needed in the first place. The man obviously had friends in high places to take their room. Knocking on the door, she waited for a man to ask, "It's Lois Lane, from the Daily Planet. I would like a..."

"I don't give interviews this late in the ... " The man stopped and creepily eyed Lois and up and down. "On second thought, come in."

Chloe carefully walked by the older man and took in the surroundings. Glancing, the room looked like a normal hotel room. Still, there had to be something not write right for the doctor to be in their room.

"I'll take your coat," the man stated, not asked as he had already reached for it.

Pulling it back, Chloe smiled, "No thank you."

"Let's make ourselves more comfortable," Dr. Mamba smiled as he sat and patted a place close to him on the bed.

Chloe felt ill. She had interviewed slick and the sick in their time but not slimy like this guy. "No, this couch will be fine," she answered as she sat on the other side of the room. Nodding her head, she had no interest in the wine that the man had poured. She wanted to laugh. It seemed that her dimension's Lex and this guy attended the same charm school but this doctor failed miserably. "Just the interview," she flatly remarked as the man scooted closer to her.

"Now why would a pretty thing like you be interested in amphibians?"

"Actually, I am more interested in knowing if you have a dark blue rental car, license plate number MRC701?"

Chloe watched the man's expression as he looked at the ceiling and a tinge of smile appeared out of the corner of his mouth. "I do have a dark blue car. I also have three suits, two tuxedos, four shirts, socks, shoes, and undies. Would you like to see them?"

Glancing over at the dresser as he spoke, the word undies caught her attention. "Uh I'll pass. Anyway, at 12:13 AM, someone robbed Phil's Exotic Pet Palace using your rental car. Would you by any chance know who would do that?"

"I have no idea," Dr. Mamba smiled as he scooted closer on the couch to where Chloe sat. Scooting back again her gaze widened as the man kept coming. "Anyway, the valets have the keys and I don't tip very well, so they probably used it in a joyride."

"Well, it looked like he worked for the secret service."

"Now isn't that interesting." Dr. Mamba coyly answered leaning closer into her.

Leaning back again, Chloe hit the edge of the couch and the end of her way out. "So does any of this ring a bell?"

"Not even a tinkle." The man grinned. "Now, I have decided to order some dinner in and would love to have you join me." The man ran one finger down the side of her bare arm.

"Um no," Chloe jumped off the couch and grabbed her coat. "Thank you though. I have to go." Walking toward the door, the man cut her off and smiled. Chloe's breathing increased as she saw him cut her off, remembering Lex had told her to stay put. Someday she would learn to listen to her friends. Still talking herself out of the room, she smiled.

"It's ok. You are very lovely woman, very sweet, and very intelligent." Dr. Mamba pulled her back to face him. "I apologize."

Chloe lifted her head and decided to press on. This close to the door she was sure she could take down the old man and escape if need be. "You do research on Dopple Buffo frogs?"

"What kind?" The man twisted his head and asked her to repeat.

"Dopple Buffo?"

"Hmm, well as you have proven you are intelligent and sweet and you can tell that this is a hotel suite and not a research lab. But unfortunately it is getting late and I need to be getting to bed."

"One more question," Chloe asked as the man opened the door for her. "Maybe a comment but do hotels normally let you have hot plates in the room?" She pointed at the small pot on a hot plate that she noticed was not plugged in.

"No, but occasionally I like to have a spot of tea before heading to bed. Goodnight Ms. Lane." The man unceremoniously shut the door in her face and rolled his eyes.

Turning, he watched as a man appeared from behind the fancy partition and through the secret passage way. Turning in their direction, he rolled his eyes. "Did you hear that? You just had to get those frogs, a snack you said. Now she's on to us. You know how to spell stupid? YOU. Now you follow her, if she's getting close at all, bring her back here."

******

On the way back to Lois' apartment Chloe couldn't get over the strange things that apparently followed her to another dimension. She thought maybe Wells had dropped her and Lex there as a lesson to them both. Maybe to teach him his future so he could change it, maybe to do the same for her. To show her before she ended up dead and he ended up in prison.

Still maybe they were the ones more well equipped for the things happening to Lois and Clark and that was the reason for switch. Or was it to teach Lex about Clark and end all the bickering that slowly was escalating back home. "Threatening gifts, weird frogs, Lex fighting a tsunami in India as Superman, what else could possibly go wrong?"

"Lois, I'm not coming to your wedding, not if your father is there." Chloe looked up and saw Lois' mother appearing from the kitchen. Sighing, she now understood the reason that Sam had let the woman leave in her dimension, if they were anything alike.

"What?"

"Your father says I'm too controlling and I'm driving you crazy so I'm leaving things alone. Send photos."

Chloe ran her hands down her face and stared at the old woman who obviously had drank and smoked her way through Lois' childhood. She couldn't take it anymore. "You are being unreasonable. You're trying to control the situation right now by dictating who can and can't be at the wedding."

"And why doesn't someone tell me this before now?"

"I am. I have." Chloe walked away as the woman started the talk. Gabe was so much easier to talk to.

"Unreasonable and controlling. No wonder you started turning to Martha." Chloe's eyes glared back at the woman.

"I do not mean to turn to Martha Kent." Chloe put her hands on Ellen's shoulders. "I would like to turn to you for help since you are my mother. That would be reasonable."

The two sat down on separate ends of couch and sighed. "I just wanted your wedding to be perfect."

"It will be," Chloe said thinking 'sometime in long distant future.' "I'm marrying the man I was destined to be with. It will be perfect because that's what matters."

Ellen sighed and finally fell silent as the two women held hands and smiled. Chloe still couldn't wrap her head around talking to woman she called mom. Her loss she concluded had been different than Lex's. Or her need was different. He needed the Kents more than she needed a mom since Gabe had been there. She almost felt bad that he would once again lose that when they returned.

"So where have you been anyway?" Ellen looked over at Lois' long look on her face.

"The story of my life. Trying to do research on some frogs that Dr. Mamba has been working with. I think we just about got a connection, but I have to go call Clark and see ..."

"About getting your story sorted out. I think that would be a very bad idea." The agent jumped into the apartment from the fire escape window and smiled slyly at the two women as he pointed a gun at them.

Pulling the trigger the man aimed as Lois pushed her mother to the ground and picked up her purse just as another dart flew into the side of the purse, missing Lois' head by a few centimeters.

Seeing that Lois had distracted the man, Ellen reached for a glass vase and threw it at the man's head, causing him to drop the gun. Pushing the gun out of the way, Lois kicked the man in the groin and watched as he crumbled to the ground.

Ellen stood up with the tranquilizer gun in hand and pointed it at the man as Lois searched his things. Pulling out his wallet, she handed her mom the ID. "He's from the secret service, we're going to prison."

"Don't be so dramatic," Chloe answered the woman. She watched his head and laughed. Accelerated healing. "Watch." She picked up a loose piece of glass and scratched his head again.

Ellen shrieked at her daughter and watched as the cut place quickly filled in. "It's an alien. We have to get out of here. Those things will suck your brains out and then use you for strange sexual experiments."

Chloe glared at her but couldn't come to terms with enough reason to take the gun and put her out as well. Searching his pockets for more information, Chloe smiled as a little green frog came hopping out of the man's inside jacket pocket.

"See? He's a clone."

Chloe smiled as she walked across the room and logged onto the computer in the room. "Honey, we're going to get a boat, a train, a bus, and just get the hell out of here."

Chloe looked up at Ellen and shook her head. "No, this is my life mom and this is my story," she stated as the information she was looking for popped up. "Dr. Mamba is in town, the frogs were taken, and this a clone. It all fits. Look, Greentech, Dr. Mamba's corporation is owned by Omnicorp, a former Lexcorp company."

"Lex Luthor ?"

"Yeah, he had worked with some cloning in the past, no doubt with Dr. Mamba then as well. And of course, look, he built the Metropolis Diamond Hotel. He's had this whole thing wired from the beginning." Chloe turned around and shook her fists in the air. "Dammit. Quit waking up." She grabbed the gun from Ellen and shot the clone that was coming to and sitting on her couch now.

"Why would Lex Luthor clone a secret service agent?"

Chloe shrugged and looked at Ellen. "I haven't put all that together yet, but it has something to do with the president and more than likely a diversion for me."

***********

Lionel lowered Clark onto the flat slab on ice that had meant to be a resting place for Clark when he needed to recharge his energies. Watching he breathed as his son struggled to catch his breath, something he could not assist him with. Even with the powers that Jorel possessed Lionel's body with, Clark would have to wake up on his own. Walking away, he inspected the fortress and left Clark to struggle to wake himself up.

Clark opened his eyes and coughed as the fortress around him came in view from his blurry sight. For being in the arctic, he wasn't cold. His body felt stronger every moment he laid still. The bruises and scratched from the work on the barn roof the night before were fading. Still, he questioned how he had gotten to the fortress.

"Chloe?" Calling the only other person he knew that had knowledge of the place he was. "Chloe, are you here?"

"Chloe's in Smallville son. But you will see her and your family soon enough." Clark sat up and swayed, still not completely strong. "Take it easy Kal El. Your body has to recover."

"Jorel?" Clark thought about what Lex had told him in the mansion but still shook his head, hearing the man that had caused the town so much anguish was standing over him telling him to take it easy.

"Yes, but hopefully someday you will find it in your heart to call me father. Now let's stand you up and see if we can make heads or tails of our situation."

Jorel watched as Clark slid from the ice formation and stood up, wobbled, and then caught himself with the help of Lionel's arm. "I was just at the farm and everyone...my parents...how did you convince?"

"I'm sure that Chloe has that well at hand my son. I took you and came through the portal in the cave. The Clark from the other dimension, Lex, found the location of the key in the mansion. You are safe. Now to get you healthy."

"But how?"

Clark sat down on the slab again and Lionel stood next to him carefully steadying him as he spoke, "When this body became activated by the crystal, it became an oracle of Kryptonian knowledge, a vessel to inhabit in the case you ever needed me. That time was now."

"Am I dead?" Clark asked as he stood up and walked around the fortress. Turning back toward Jorel, he waited.

"Your mortal journey yes, but your imminent destiny is too important to sacrifice. So you will return with all your natural gifts. But unfortunately this rectification does not without a price." Lionel stopped and nodded as he could see the look on Clark's face change.

Clark feared the worst. He wondered what he would have to give up now for the natural gifts he never asked for be returned to him. 'You're alive, but you owe me,' he was getting tired of.

"The life of someone close to you will be exchanged for yours. The price to be paid for disobeying me once before and relinquishing your powers then." Lionel could see Clark's anguish in his face as he ran through the different people that were close to him and wondered who would be taken in balance.

Gripping his son by both shoulders, Lionel looked up in his eyes with the deepest pride. "I know son this is not the way you wanted to return, if at all, but your journey has just begun. Your older self, you as well, are in imminent danger with the release of Zod into our time."

Clark looked at the man's lines on his face. Lionel had aged in the last year after what he did and what he had paid for. Now the man that had continually tried to destroy his family and others in Smallville obviously had been picked well by Jorel. The logical choice to use the brightest, most despicable man in the area to be his father, the other man that seemed to try to ruin his life.

"So they brought him with them?"

Jorel shook his head. The Kents had meant well but sheltered him from his past far too long. Training would have to be doubled in the future to strip his human traits from his Kryptonian traits. "No, the shower. There is danger that came from the shower. Go to Lex, ask to see the hospital walls, learn from them what you can before your greatest fight makes himself known."

Taking his son in his arms, Jorel closed his eyes and knew that this would be the first of several battles that Clark would have to face. He had to learn the Kryptonian ways by force, if not by need.

Clark felt a warm light envelope him and then he woke up in a field outside of the caves. Looking around, he could still feel the strange heat that Jorel had given off before disappearing. He wondered if he passed Lionel if the man would remember anything about it at all. Sitting up, he looked in the direction of the farmhouse and sighed. Someone would have to perish for his life.

********

Jonathon and Martha sat at the table across from Chloe. Hours had slipped by since Lionel had taken their son and disappeared. "I'm going after him," Jonathon finally gave in and pushed the chair out from under him. Turning the door opened.

"It's ok," was all that Clark could form. He stared at three of the people important to him and wondered if one of them was the one.

Martha rushed over and hugged her son; she already knew some kind of sacrifice had been made. "We know it had to be done." She leaned back and then glanced in the front room before Chloe stood up.

"One piece again, but the look on your face says you made a deal." Lois had been around Clark and his Kryptonian ancestors talking in the middle of the night to know that nothing was just given.

Clark stumbled, he wouldn't admit it except that the future Lois could read him. "A life for mine. I don't know who."

Chloe glanced back at the terror on the faces of his parents, more than likely Jorel's first target. Clark's parents in her world had been treated differently. Looked on as their son's savior and not his enemy. Others had been sacrificed, his city, his friends, Lois herself, but his parents spared. This Jorel was vengeful. They would all have to proceed cautiously.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kent? Is Clark here?"

Lana appeared in the doorway and smiled. Glancing over at Clark, Chloe smiled and nodded him on as he disappeared out the door with his girlfriend. Turning to the Kents, she sighed. "Hopefully he'll take the deal."


	6. Revelation

Chapter 6 - Revelations

Lois looked over the details of the Metropolis Diamond Hotel records and shut the computer down. Grabbing her purse, she handed the tranquilizer gun back to her mother. "Tell Clark where I am if he calls; if that thing wakes up, shoot him again." Starting out the door, she smiled back at the woman that was Lois' deranged mother.

The Metropolis Diamond Hotel across town, meanwhile, had its own activity going on late into the evening. In a dark hotel suite toward the top of the building, the president sat at the desk and finished signing several official notices. "There you go. Make sure to have that processed as soon as possible." The president handed the materials to one of his aides. Watching his aide leave the room, he went about cleaning off the rest of his desk until he heard the commotion outside the room.

"Look, I need to see him. I have quote that I want to confirm about the tax decreases he is proposing. If I don't get my quote right, you could be working for another president next year."

Leaning over the edge of the desk, the president shook his head at the considerable audacity of Lois Lane. She never gave in getting the complete story. "Lois, you're up late tonight. What brings you by? Let her in boys; it's an election year."

Chloe entered the hotel room and noticed that the president was sitting comfortably in the chair behind the hotel suite's desk, almost too comfortable. She had never had the pleasure of interviewing someone quite as high up on the political ladder, but she knew that even just speaking to Lex in the late evening he wouldn't be seen in a bathrobe.

Carefully walking into the room, she continued to smile. "Good evening. I Just need to make sure of ..." Chloe tried to lie as she analyzed the wall and noticed that the closet in the suite was decorated with the same decor as the rest of the walls. Hidden walls and doors as far as she could tell. Lex never missed a detail apparently, even in the present dimension. In fact, she thought, he had gotten smoother.

"No problem. Now, I know at this late evening the paper is already going to print, so what is this all about?" The president leaned back in the chair as Chloe sat down and pulled the chair up next to his desk.

"I think Lex Luthor is planning to assassinate you. One of your secret service agents turned up at my apartment and tried to kill me before I could get to you."

The president leaned forward, determined yet confused. "What? I haven't heard anything about a plot."

"One of the assassins has to be the secret service agent that was cloned. I think there may be more to the story. I think Lex Luthor is involved."

"This is a fantastic bedtime story Lois." The president stood up and smiled as he moved around the desk to her. Chloe moved slightly to the side where she wasn't touching him. His slick movements reminded her of Lex in the more business meetings they had the years before. "Do you have proof?"

"The police have in custody the clone that attacked my mother and me in my apartment." The president leaned against the desk and crossed his arms without much need of urgency. Chloe glanced at the president who didn't seem bothered by the news, but then turned as the door she noticed earlier opened.

"Lois Lane, now I insist that you have dinner with me." Chloe glared at Dr. Mamba as he exited the door with a gun pointed at her. Rolling her eyes, she knew she was in over her head, even for Chloe Sullivan standards.

"Handy things these secret passages. Mr. Luthor had the great foresight of having them installed in all his hotels." Dr. Mamba smiled as the president quickly put his arm around her body to hold her in place.

Chloe struggled but knew with a gun pointed at her, she had very little to go on. She could hear Lex's complaining as Dr. Mamba continued to speak. "You know, you almost had all this correct. But it wasn't to assassinate the president." The man smiled.

Chloe swallowed and pulled out of the president's grip and looked over at him. "You cloned the president? Are you insane?" Chloe glanced at the men and the door. Damn the consequences. The president and Dr. Mamba smiled as she started toward the door.

Hearing the gunshot, Chloe dropped to the ground. With her head buried in the carpet, she heard another shot go off before the window shatter and the familiar woosh of air that she had gottten used to with Clark's running. Turning her head to the side, she watched as Lex destroyed Dr. Mamba's gun.

"Superman!" The president yelled. Standing up and watching Lex pin the doctor against the wall, she moved quickly when the secret service and police appeared from the main door.

"Get the president; he's a clone."

"Lois, you can't possibly believe this raving mad man. I am as much a clone as superman is human."

"Oh yeah?" Chloe nervously looked over at Lex and picked up the glass sculpture off the desk. Swinging madly, Chloe's direct hit across the face of the president was met with her instantly thrown to the ground by one member of the secret service.

"Lois!" She heard from now what she expected was a very angry Lex Luthor playing good guy.

"Watch his face!" Chloe screamed out of the carpet that she was pressed against. All the agents watched as the distinct gash from the glass vase seemed to magically close up and disappear.

"Take him gentlemen and the good doctor too. Thank you two." Lex walked over and stood next to Chloe as the agents cuffed both of the men and started out the door.

Chloe glanced over and saw Lex concentrating on something as he signaled for her to stay quiet. "Men," he called down the hall. "I think you'll find the real president and his secret service agent downstairs in the non-working service elevator."

"Thank you Superman." Lex gently nodded and leaned against the desk and crossed his arms, glancing over at Chloe.

"How's your neck?"

"Not as bad as the bruise I'll have on my back. His knee hurt." Chloe quietly spoke. "I'm sorry."

Lex huffed and shook his head as he looked down the stairs of the still open passageway. "You really thought I would expect you to stay put. I know you and I have a feeling your cousin wouldn't do much different." Turning back to face her, he shook his head, "I came up with this? This is taking panic rooms to a whole new level."

Chloe put her arm around his waist, "Don't even go there."

************

The weather had been kind to the crops so far that year. Clark watched as Lana ran her hand along the corn stalks as they walked. The two had disappeared for several hours trying to once again explain each others feelings now that Clark was super again. He had to find out from Lois and Clark how they handled learning the secret.

"Look, it's getting late and you probably should get some rest after your ordeal today. I didn't realize the time." Lana smiled up at Clark as she wrapped her arm around him and kissed him in the loft of the barn.

"Lana, have you ever felt as if someone else was in charge of who you were going to be, of your destiny?" Clark walked over and sat down on the steps of the loft and stared into the distance. Jumping slightly at seeing Chloe's figure on the other side of the barn door, he knew he had to cut Lana off."

Lana sat down next to him, wrapping her arms around him as he swallowed uncomfortably. Something didn't feel right now. "You can only control your destiny. What's all this about?"

Clark turned to her and then away. "Nothing. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Lana stood up and looked down at the young man that she was in love with. He had acted strange since the meteor shower and even stranger today. She couldn't quite understand why he questioned himself so much. Maybe Lex had a reason to feel wary, to always question Clark's motives. "If not, we'll talk soon." Lana leaned over after descending a couple of stairs and kissed him once more before leaving him quietly, only looking back to see him staring off into space.

Chloe watched as Lana pulled away and then entered the barn. "So what does it feel to have your powers back?"

Clark looked up as Chloe descended the stairs. "I didn't seem to have a choice. Lionel took me to the fortress."

"I know; I was there explaining to your parents not to sue Lionel Luthor. So, what happened?"

Clark fell silent for a second and then looked over at his friend. She was every image of the Chloe Sullivan that he knew, but more. He wanted to know everything about his life in the other dimension, but it wasn't theirs to tell. He knew that. Still the nagging feeling of what Jorel had said still bothered him, especially with the company he knew was invading Chloe and Lex's bodies right now.

"You're worried about the consequences?" Chloe finally asked in the silence.

"I'm concerned about what I'm going to lose." Clark looked over at Chloe and walked away. "And what I still have to tell her."

Chloe took a deep breath, almost chuckling at the end. She had been there not so long ago. "You know, I'm supposed to keep some things from you, to preserve the future. But," she walked over and turned him around. "But secrets that cause this much pain work against you when two people that love each other could so easily work together. Now, I'm not as versed in how Lana may perceive your abilities, but it makes things simpler."

Chloe waited as she remembered when Clark explained about inviting Lana Lang to their wedding, then meeting her under the most unfortunate of circumstances. The woman, at least in her time, seemed stronger yet offended by Clark's powers. Knew of them, but made him hide them. She had talked him into seeing past her and using his powers for good.

Clark looked over and forced a smile. "Did it for you? Make things simpler?"

"It let us both finally see our true souls and decide from there." Clark looked out the loft window as his father glanced up in his direction. Feeling a pat on the back, he turned and saw Chloe silently walk down the stairs. He knew there was more than she was telling him, but she may have been the best advice he had ever gotten that scared him.

Meanwhile at the mansion, Clark uncharacteristically Luthor like rubbed his eyes and groaned at the paperwork in front of him as he heard footsteps. Looking up, Lana barged through the door. "Lana." He had nothing more to say to her; the same version of the woman rubbed him wrong like his ex-girlfriend from years ago.

Throwing a file across the table, Lana stared at him. "There they are. The hospital said you were looking through Clark's medical file."

Lex stopped, not remembering when this would have occurred and figured before he turned up in Lex's body. "I assure you it was just for honest means."

"When will you realize that Clark is just like the rest of us; he's an ordinary guy."

Lex stood up and handed the folder back to Lana. "Lana, and I mean this with the most honest sincerity. If you believe that, then you are really going to get your heart broken."

Lana grabbed the folder out of his hand and opened her mouth. Lex was never that straightforward. He had always hidden his true answers behind some kind of mask. Everyone in Smallville somehow was now acting weird. Raising her chin, she turned and stomped out, but not sure where to go.

**********

Clark looked around the room as he sat down in the large lecture hall. The normal freshman world history class was unusually empty for a freshman class, but mumblings from others in the room was that the section opened up unexpectedly with a new professor.

"Good morning, My name is Professor Milton Fine and this is world history. But before we delve into the Greek and Romans, let's take a moment to explore the word history. History is not about facts. It's about the context and who is telling the story." The man paused and looked directly at Clark. "What is your story? How will affect the world around you?"

Stammering and somewhat nervous about the question, Clark paused, "I don't know whether anybody can tell that at 18."

"Ahh, tell that to Alexander the Great. Or to Lex Luthor. He's not much older than you are and yet he has turned an agrobusiness into defense contracts. Instead of feeding people, he is killing them. And yet he can still call himself a white knight." The professor paused and looked slightly over Clark's head. "Beware of white knights. They don't slay dragons, they train them. Hitler, Stalin, Napolean."

"Lex isn't a saint, but you can't put him in the same category." Cark couldn't help but respond. Even the Lex from before the switch, although not what he had been, was still not comparable. Clark stared at the professor.

After an hour of the meaning of history, Clark still couldn't let go of the idea that the professor was attacking Lex personally and was somehow taking the actions out on him. "Mr. Kent, could you hold up a minute."

Clark turned as the professor packed up his things and continued to talk anyway, "How long have you been friends with Lex Luthor?"

"Who said we were friends?"

"A deduction. Same town, defending his name."

"Long story, but he's not the man you make him out to be." Clark had a bad feeling where this was headed.

"Groucho Marx once said ask if a person if he's honest, if he says yes, he must be crooked." Clark said nothing. "I'm doing research on the Luthorcorp and need someone that may already have some links to him."

"I'm really..."

"Are you afraid of uncovering what your friend really is like?" Professor Fine looked at the boy and nodded before walking away. Clark pulled out his phone and looked at the text. It was uncanny how that happened.

A few minutes later he walked into the library at the mansion and thought the camera phone would come in handy. Lex, Chloe, and Lionel sat across from each other looking over Luthorcorp documents. He wondered how Lionel would deal when his real son returned from whatever place he had been sent. Still, seeing the father and son work together, even if it wasn't really Lex, was out of the ordinary and would stop anyone in their tracks.

"Clark? You look like you saw a ghost," Chloe joked as she sat up from the coffee table. Lex sat back in the leather couch and threw the folder across the table.

"I have no idea about any of this. Clark, what's going on?"

Pulling his syllabus out for world history, he threw it on top of the Luthorcorp pile. "I think we may have a problem."

***********

Lex stood outside the church and stared up at the steeple, taking long deep breaths. He had been married before so the routine was nothing out of the ordinary but the circumstances of marrying as Clark Kent was a little unnerving, especially knowing Chloe was the soul behind the short brunette bob.

"Son, you look nervous. I thought you and Lois would be past the whole cold feet thing." Perry laughed as he patted the young reporter on the back.

"Yeah, you and Lois are made for each other; there's nothing for you guys to be concerned with." Jimmy tried to feel like he was adding to the conversation.

Clark glanced over at the two and smiled, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It's not that I'm really nervous about Lois, but I have a strange feeling about today." That was true. Even though the overbearing feeling that Lois was really Chloe and he was about to marry her still sat like a rock in his stomach, something else after the night before was out of place.

"You mean like Reverend Bob telling jokes during the ceremony?"

"Jimmy, you close your mouth," Perry gruffly stated as a limo pulled up in front of the church. Clark could only chuckle, secretly hoping that was it.

Clark watched as the door to the limo opened and smiled. Lois' hair was done and the rest of her family was with her. Chloe eyed Lex in Clark's body and tux and closed her eyes. 'It's Lex Luthor, it's Lex Luthor, it's Lex Luthor,' she told herself over and over before opening jumping out of the limo and trying to hide behind the dress.

"Don't look. It's bad luck." She started up the stairs and heard a voice behind her. Turning, she finally met Clark's eyes and felt the urge to lurch. She was really marrying Lex Luthor.

"I have some bad news. The preacher called and said he caught a boat for a gig." The man patiently waited and smiled at the Lois' family.

Lois sat down on the steps and ran her hands down her face as Clark sat down beside her. "I knew, I knew it. Lex Luthor probably owns the cruise lines and hired that weirdo just to screw up my day."

"Lois," Lex tried to sound sympathetic after just being attacked.

"Lex, he's the one that was sending all those creepy gifts. He can't stand the idea that I'm marrying you and it's making him crazy enough to make me crazy. I knew something bad like this was going to happen and it's happening in spades. That man..."

Lex put his arm around Chloe and touched her knee. Sometimes he heard Chloe talk and was worried that she was blending her two worlds too close together. "Lois, he's in prison. For the next nine hundred years. Now come on, let's just find a way to get married." He saw Chloe turn and look at him.

Leaning into his body, she smiled softly. "Sorry about," she whispered, knowing that Lex would understand she wasn't attacking him per se. Only attacking him if he turned into the same creature.

"Ladies and gentleman, I hate to admit this but I am an ordained minister of the church of Blue Suede Deliverance." Perry watched as everyone turned and gawked at him. "We were at Graceland and this little hotel had it printed on a matchbook and so I did. I can marry you." No one could still speak. "So, we'll wing it."

Clark turned and looked at Lois as her mother stared at them. There was no way the two were backing out now because of a minor setback. "Fine," Lois responded before getting up and starting into the church.

"Ms. Lane, I need to get you to sign the marriage license." Handing the dress to her mother, she leaned over and kissed Clark on the cheek, knowing full well kissing him on the mouth was coming very shortly. Still repeating 'he's Lex Luthor,' she disappeared with the church officer.

Lex walked back into the church after Jimmy and Perry started preparing what Perry would say. Looking around at the simply decorated wedding, he was startled seeing Clark's parents. "I am so proud of you," Martha cried as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Lex felt his chest suddenly tighten but then quickly loosen as the parents both hugged and patted him on the back. "I love you," Martha cried again as she hugged his arm and Jonathon straightened his tie. Letting out a quick sigh, he rocked on his heels and closed his eyes. This was the hardest wedding he had been through.

*********

"Loosen up," Jimmy leaned over and told Clark. Lex could feel it in his muscle that he was stiff, almost robotic while standing at the altar. When the doors opened, he was stunned.

She was incredible. The dress was perfect and her face was radiant, even with the small hint of tension that she showed in the corner of her mouth. He knew Chloe wasn't exactly thrilled with going through with the entire wedding but neither had a choice.

They had learned a lot more about each other since they had been working together again. They weren't so different than they had been a couple short years ago. As Lois slowly made it up the aisle, Lex wondered when they got back to their time, if there was any way she would be willing to try this feeling on for real. Fighting with her about Clark's secret was now null and void, but he knew her now and wanted to know more.

Chloe stopped on the bottom of the altar and looked up as Lex made his way down to her side. Taking her by the arm, he smiled back at Lois' father and then back at Chloe. Even with the thin brunette that normally described his type, he could only see Chloe.

"You're beautiful," he whispered as they faced Perry, who began speaking.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. Marriage is like, uh, newspaper." Clark rolled his eyes slightly as Lois elbowed him jokingly. "Takes a lot of hard work to make it successful, but if anyone can make it work, you two can."

Lois and Clark looked at each other as Jimmy handed the rings to Perry. "Now repeat after me," Perry continued as he handed the ring to Clark.

Clark looked over at Lois and swallowed. Surreal didn't explain it. He couldn't even hear himself speak as he repeated the words love, honor, and cherish. It was a strange sound of static, butterflies in his head. Taking a deep breath, he looked up and saw Lois smile with all her might as he put the ring on her finger.

As Perry continued Lex still only saw Lois' mouth repeat the words that Perry had said, but still couldn't hear anything. She beamed with every word. She had been concerned that she would be the one to falter at the altar and he was falling apart. Feeling her squeeze his hand, he looked at her again.

"You ok?" His hearing was back. Just nodding his head, he squeezed her hand back in reassurance as Perry announced the two married.

"You may kiss the bride." Clark leaned in and took her head in his hands before kissing her gently and then increasing the kiss. Pulling back out of the kiss, Lois still just beamed before he kissed her again, this time pressing for more with no return. Was Chloe actually concerned that these parents wouldn't want to see a true kiss at the altar?

As the music started, the two walked down the aisle, still not hearing anything from Chloe. Now Lex was concerned. She seemed to have settled into some strange state of shock. This wasn't the Chloe he knew, even as Lois. Plastering on a smile for the crowds, he grabbed her hand and led her to the limo, looking back at the church official that blended into the background.

"Lois?"

"Yes?" Lois just sat next to him in the car and continued smiling and holding his hand.

"So what did you think of the wedding?" Lex was now cautious as he waved bye to Clark's parents and saw Lois blow kisses to her folks.

"It was beautiful. I am so in love with you Clark," Lois smiled and wrapped her arms in his. Seeing that the partition in the limo was up, Lex swallowed before looking out the window. He needed to find that church official soon.


	7. Matching Wits with Madmen

Chapter 7 - Matching Wits with Madmen

Lex appeared from behind the door of the particular classroom that Clark was in. He didn't want to be seen but listened as this Professor Fine continued lecturing on the Roman Empire. In his mind, he wondered how someone from his former race on Krypton would want to hide out as a lowly college professor, attacking the one person in the area that seemed, at least in this time, to be decently fair.

Clark shook his bald head and reminded himself that he was Lex. That was the fair and honest thing about the man at the time. Even Lionel and his ending of the Leviathin project before its announcement to the military was already coming under scrutiny of the board as becoming soft. Dealing with the fallout himself, Lionel left for an early morning meeting in D.C. leaving Clark and his Smallville self to delve into Fine's past.

The news continued to roll in from Clark about the different projects that Fine researched, some according to Lionel, were not even of public knowledge. Lex wasn't convinced that they weren't just chasing a tree hugging professor that didn't like Luthorcorp, but Lionel felt otherwise.

Hearing Clark's name, Lex moved into the light behind the last row of chairs and sat down. "Mr. Kent, what about you? What if you found out that Lex Luthor, the emperor of the company was a dangerous, unstable megalomaniac bent on destroying your world?"

Lex watched and listened for an answer as Clark stammered over his words. He felt he would have had the same answer at his age. Seeing Clark get up and leave with the others, Lex quietly descended the stairs to stand right in front of this professor. "Interesting lecture. I really liked the bit about the megalomaniac. You're getting dangerously close to libel."

Fine turned and looked at his one on one competition. "The great Lex Luthor in my presence. I must have won the prize." Picking up his notes from the podium, he quietly smiled to himself and then noticed Lex had not moved. "It's only libel if it is not true. All my statements are based firmly in research."

Lex turned and stepped in from of the professor as he tried to walk out the door. "And you're calling me the dangerous one? Perhaps one might consider looking deeper into your past." Lex watched as Fine's eyes rolled slightly to avoid the gaze at the particular moment. "I may have perhaps caught that research bug just today," Lex added.

"Good, there's nothing you will find that fairs remotely to your own history, or that of your family's," Fine quipped as he tried to move past Lex without success.

Clark hated using Lex's current status to get anywhere, but was quickly learning that was the only way Lex got anywhere. Perhaps the same in his own world. Leaning in to the man he had quickly learned to mistrust, he put his hands in his pockets. "As you may know I give generously to this particular institution."

Professor Fine smirked at the blatant threat coming from the younger Luthor. Still something felt not quite right with Lex there. The presence of power didn't seem to exude itself outwardly, as if the younger Luthor was choosing words more carefully than normal. "Yes, I know. The buying of influence is part of my second semester. Good day Mr. Luthor."

Lex watched the professor turn before quipping, "If you have a second semester." Fine simply turned and nodded at the random remark before walking out the door. Lex leaned against the podium and wondered how things were going on the other end.

Feeling the phone in his pocket vibrate, he picked it up and saw the number. "Hey, how did it go?"

"It's a basement job, but I'm in enough to give me access to records and a computer database here. The only problem is my computer hacker didn't exactly switch dimensions with us." He could hear the stress in Lois's voice. In their life, Jimmy found and cracked everything for them. This would be harder to do.

Clark ran his hand along his bald head in frustration as the lights started to dim in the classroom. "Ok, get what you can and meet me back at the mansion." Looking at the other number calling, he knew he had to cut it short. "Lionel is on the other line. He's taking care of the business side of things. See you soon."

With Lois as Chloe now embedded at the Daily Planet, things were about to get a whole lot easier, as long as no computers were involved. Picking up an errant piece of paper off the floor, Clark read the notes, made a basket from across the room and left, without seeing that Fine had never left the room at all.

********

After ceremoniously carrying Lois over the threshold even though she had been at his apartment times before, Clark put her down and started for the phone just to have his hand taken again.

"What are you doing? That's why we have time off where we don't have to work," Lois devilishly smiled as she ran her hands up and down Clark's chest.

Lex wanted to groan. First, this was the exact type of woman that he intended to avoid on purpose in Smallville because he was Lex Luthor and second, this, he was now convinced, was not his Lois. He was smart though. He knew not to come out and ask straightaway if she knew where Chloe was. He wasn't sure what the situation was except that he, or Clark, was now married to a clone.

"I'm just making one phone call before we call it a night." He kissed her on the forehead. Gazing into her proud, happy eyes, she was something if not completely real in look and feel. She's not Lois, she's not even Chloe, he kept repeating to himself in order to keep his hands at bay. "Now, why don't you go freshen up and maybe find something easier than the dress to lounge in."

Lois turned and smiled before pressing her lips firmly to his. Lex uncharacteristically grunted in surprise as she left and grabbed him in the crotch just to return as he picked up the receiver. "Honey," Lois pouted. "I need help out of the dress."

Lex put the phone down again and smiled. His will was slowly fading as the thing in front of him was just as human without the brains. She felt just like the Lois in this time, just no soul. Playing along, he twisted her around and heard her yelp in excitement as he started each button of the dress. Slowly, the back revealed the extra layers underneath and he sighed, knowing there were still parts she had covered. Kissing the back of her neck down to her shoulder, he ran his hands down her soft skin and whispered, "There. Now I'll be just a few minutes."

Lois held her dress up around her as she turned and giggled before disappearing into the bathroom. Lex rolled his eyes and vowed that cloning would only happen for him when the person is the exact copy and not some sex crazed child version. Picking up the receiver again, he quickly called the church.

"St. Anthony's."

"Yes, this is Clark Kent and I was wondering if I could talk to the officiant that had me and my wife sign the marriage license?"

"Mr. Kent, he has left for the evening, but he did deliver the license after the preacher signed it. It will be filed with the county. Mr. Oberhause should be in tomorrow morning at 9. Is there anything else?"

Lex didn't know what else to ask that wouldn't give away the situation. "No thank you. Have a good evening." Lex hit end on the receiver and heard the shower start knowing it bought him a little more time. He dialed another number.

"Clark? Honey?"

"Hi mom," Lex said with a strange sense of reluctance. "I needed to talk to you about something." Lex kept a close eye on the bathroom and continued to listen as the water ran. "Did something strange happen today while we were all at the wedding?"

"I don't think so, but your father is in watching the news." Lex could hear Martha walk across the room in hotel they had finally found. Hearing silence from his folks, he could hear the television in the background and knew he had a serious problem.

"Mom, you and dad stay put there. Call if something go awry and I'll personally take you to the airport. And if Lois happens to come visit you or her parents, just act normal."

"Clark what's going on?"

Lex debated quietly to himself about telling them the truth and remembered that Clark always told his parents everything or so it seemed. At least this Jonathon wasn't as judgmental. "I think Lois is a clone."

Hearing the parents both gasp, he suddenly felt very protective over people he had only met a few days earlier. "It's ok, but I'll talk to you soon. The shower just stopped."

"Son, what are you going to do? It's your wedding night." Lex knew exactly what his father meant. The clone knew no difference in that she only played the part.

"Act natural, but stall. Goodnight." Quickly hanging the phone up, he watched the door and spun out of his tux and into his robe, preparing a bottle of champagne along the way. Sitting down on the couch, he smiled.

Lois opened the door and sighed at her new husband. Nervous about her first night that she could really remember, she pulled up her long silk gown and sat with him. "Are you trying to romance me Mr. Kent?"

Clark smiled as he kissed her shoulder and felt her quiver. "Is it working Mrs. Kent?"

************

Chloe nodded her head back and forth and squinted, but still only saw fuzz. Moaning in the chair, she felt something in her mouth and around her hands and feet. Opening her eyes, she looked over and eyed the man she had signed the marriage license with and then couldn't remember.

"The whole time I was away I was consumed by the memory of your beauty. The memory, I can assure you, did not do you justice." The man glanced in Chloe's direction just as she was starting to put the pieces together.

Chloe eyed the chemical the man rubbed on his face after removing the wig just to see more hair, strange brown curls atop the man's head. More curious than afraid at the moment, Chloe continued to watch as the special effects makeup started to peel from the edges and the man gave the mask a tug.

Chloe watched as the man's face came into full view and then swallowed as the man that was this dimension's Lex Luthor turned to gaze at her with what could only be described as predatory passion. Letting out a sigh, she knew that her Lex was then married to a clone.

As Lex removed his mask and the glue, Chloe continued wondering if her Lex had figured it out yet. He was smart, but not quite the villain that he obviously could become. She had to find a way out. Just tell this Lex the truth that he doesn't even have the right Lois Lane. That wouldn't work.

Then she was curious if people were actually looking for this Lex. Missing half the day, she knew there was much more to the story than she was allowed access. Then how to play this Lex. Was flight, fight, or give in the easiest way to have him fold to her. Careful, she knew Lois would be terrified and played that card as he watched her from the mirror.

********

Lionel paced the mansion study thinking about the fascinating meeting that Clark and Lex both had with Fine. Knowing that business was suddenly taking a backseat to the situation at hand, he had stopped by the warehouse that his real son, Lex, had secretly housed away a space ship.

The piece was remarkable. The lines, not even lines really, more like liquid that seemed to move with the motions of your own hand. Scientists, the best in the world, couldn't scratch, crack, tear, or otherwise break it with any known earthly object, not even diamond. Still, the cameras in the building would cease to work and pick up static only at what where precise times at night and even during the day.

These schedules he had already sent to the Daily Planet to Chloe, or Lois, either of which Lionel had learned could dig up a story if there was one there. Lex, or Clark, was a little harder to crack. Softer than his own son, he knew that this Clark had seen much more and experienced much more than the Smallville Clark, which made him a worthy alibi. Still worried about Fine sniffing out the possible difference in personality, he had sent Lex to Metropolis to meet up with Chloe.

"Mr. Luthor sir, a visitor," the butler announced before opening the door and remaining present for the meeting.

Lionel turned and glanced at the gangly looking man. "Ahh, Professor Fine, the muckraker of the Luthor dynasty. My son said he had a very interesting, yet brief conversation with you."

Fine nodded at the odd choice of Luthors he was introduced to. "I guess I should be impressed and should have brought my pencil where the great teacher of Lex Luthor could entertain me with his version of corporate villainy."

Lionel laughed. This man was out of his league and not a college professor by any stretch of his imagination. "So what gifts did you bring me?"

Fine laid the documents down on the pooltable and smiled. "Your son asked, maybe said, he was going to look in on my past since I was inspecting his. So I am saving him the trouble. In there is every success, every failure."

Lionel pushed the papers around. Records from supposed schools he had worked, attended. Feeling for official stamps, the papers, the biography of the man in front of him, easily forged. He had played the infantile card of the same way once before. "And you expect Lex to swallow all this? If you consider me the teacher of the great villain, you must know that I have played this trick before." Leaning into the professor, he grinned. "You're going to have to try harder."

Lionel, pleased with himself, watched as Fine recalculated in his head the next move. To his credit, he was fully expecting Lex and was already off balance with the surprise elder. Lionel took a swig of the scotch on the bar and smiled.

"You may want to look at the last page Mr. Luthor. Even the man behind the villain would be surprised."

Lionel flipped to the back of the stack and glanced at the papers before looking at Fine. "How did you get this?"

"I think the board at the university would be interested in how funding from Luthorcorp to the university is only being used to fund questionable experiments for Luthorcorp's bottom line. On campus, but off the corporate books, and by your expression, not under daddy's watchful eye."

Lionel continued reading though the pieces and carefully plotted his next move that would be completed far before his real son returned. He watched as Fine played the rest of the balls that were on the pooltable before handing him the cue.

"I wonder what the university dean would think of your son then?" Fine locked eyes with Lionel. He was not one that he had anticipated having to work out in his equation. Still, the Luthors played almost identical. "Now, who's teaching the lessons Mr. Luthor."

Fine started out the door as Lionel nodded to the servant silently. Touching his lapel, the servant did the same before proceeding to follow Fine out of the mansion. Gulping down the last bit of the scotch, Lionel leaned against the table and eyed the experiments that Lex had started under his nose and behind his back. Fine may prove to be the enemy, but his son was not proving much better.

*********

Chloe sat at the desk in the Daily Planet when she heard a gasp from everyone on the basement floor. Looking up, she watched as Lex walked in and approached her desk. "Mr. Luthor, can I help you? You know this is the funeral and wedding announcement division?"

Clark resisted to the urge to lean on Lois' desk or grab her and kiss her. The urge was killing both of them. "We need to talk. My dad sent you some material?"

"Yeah, when he sent the information over the main fax machine with a Luthorcorp logo on the top, even the main editor began thinking he had me in the wrong place. Let's go upstairs to the conference room." Chloe grabbed the file off the desk and led Lex up the stairs back into the main foyer of the Daily Planet.

The editor, Mrs. Kahn, came out of her office and watched as her new hire and the most famous man in Metropolis disappeared into the conference room. Now her curiosity peaked. Knowing that as a teenager, Sullivan had easily been given a gift of a column by Lionel Luthor, she wondered now if there was more to the story. Ordering up a copy boy, she made excuses to watch the room as the last shade closed.

Inside the room, Lois and Clark both sighed before Clark pushed Lois up against the railing of the window. "God, I need you, just to taste you."

"Even with my blond hair? Sounds a little kinky," Lois joked about the obvious out of body make out session. Wanting to make another joke, she swallowed them as lip clung to her and a hand went up her blouse. Feeling the man that she knew as Clark cupping her breast in his hand, she leaned her body forward to feel the bulge in his pants.

"I don't care who the hell I look like, they can fix it when we get back to normal," Clark grunted out as he felt Lois' hands on the back of his bald head. Propping her up, she wrapped her legs around him and rode him as much as she could before reality clicked.

Pulling out of the breathless kiss, Lois moaned. "Clark, they saw a freshman college student and a billionaire walk in here. We can't be caught this way." Instantly, Clark stepped back and Let Lois fall gently to the ground and straighten out her clothes.

"Right," He looked at the woman in front of him. Chloe had natural beauty like his Lois, but something else he liked. "What do you think of her clothes?"

Lois looked at him as she opened the file. "They're nice, smart looking actually. Why?" Lois waited for Clark to answer and smiled. Maybe she would look for something like it when they returned, if they returned. Looking back at the charts that Lionel sent, she glanced up at Clark and shook her head. The irony still got to her.

"The spikes and static are all between midnight and five a.m. And again in between two and five in the afternoon. It's as if someone is tripping the outlet to sleep or take a break." Lois continued looking over the other numbers in the report and Clark read over the numbers.

"Clark has a class at nine and then works in Fine's office from one to six." Clark stopped as Lois looked up at him.

"What is it?"

"Clark says Fine's never there from two to five. He takes his lunch then. Do you think..."

"Chloe," a knock at the door accompanied the greeting before the door opened. "Ms. Sullivan, Mr. Luthor. I am hoping we are not infringing on anything of importance but we a have a resource for a front pager that needs the room if you two kids are done."

Clark looked at the older woman and nearly wanted to laugh. Looking at Chloe gathering her things, he noticed the reason as her lipstick was slightly smudged. Leaning over her at the table, he whispered something and Mrs. Kahn watched Chloe discreetly wipe the side of her lip.

As the two started leaving the room, Lex felt a hand on his arm. "Mr. Luthor, I understand the need for your privacy but please do not bring your lack of integrity into my newsroom."

Lois watched in awe as a look of anger that she never had seen on Clark's face appear on this Lex's face. She had seen that look in her dimension before.

"Your newsroom?" Lex quietly responded to the chief. Nodding in Chloe's direction, he headed up the stairs knowing what it would take to keep all these changes under wraps.


	8. Twsiting Women and Words

Chapter 8 - Twisting Women and Words

"Good morning," Lex heard next to him as he stretched and felt hair on his head. So much for dreaming of switching back he thought. He turned and saw the Lois that he was bound with for the time being, but hopefully not for long. "How did you sleep?"

"Good, next to you," he whispered back as he met her lips in a quick kiss. He had to admit the night before hadn't been completely horrible with the imposter. For all her faults of obviously not being Chloe, she had been understanding.

He had tried, really tried to simply go through the motions, convincing himself that he was on one of his one night stands except that he would wake up with this one and then have to be married to it. Somehow after the last two weddings he had been through had gone so well, he wasn't consummating this one with a clone. Besides, the clone couldn't drink and Superman could, even better than Lex himself.

"I have a headache," Lois moaned as she moved closer to Lex and reached under the covers for him.

"Then let me get up and get you something. We don't want you feeling like that when we go into work." Clark climbed out of bed, quickly dressed in the bathroom, and disappeared into the kitchen, sighing and looking for the aspirin.

Lois followed and wrapped her arms around his waist. "What do you mean? We leave for Hawaii this afternoon? I'm not going into work since we have so much packing to do before we head out." Lois took the pain killers from him and smiled as she continued going through the cabinets. "Where are the cups?"

Clark sat down at the table and watched as she continued to repeat the same question, each time getting a little louder until she turned to him accusingly, "Where did you put the cups?"

"All the way over by the fridge." Clark didn't know what the issue was, but she obviously had been trained for her part before some rearranging Lois and Clark did before the switch. "Look, I just didn't think that with Lex Luthor out and our very public announcement of Honeymoon plans thanks to where we work that we should be jumping on a jet right now."

Lois turned and scowled before sitting across the table from Clark and pouting. "I'm married to the greatest man in the world. I can't help that someone is infatuated with me and didn't want us to marry. But that's no reason to miss all of our fun. Besides, we need a break. All you do is talk about work." Lois pouted again before walking out of the kitchen as Lex opened his mouth.

From the bedroom, he could hear movement of clothing and chose not to intervene. If she got distracted, then maybe he could slip out and check on some things that he laid awake and thought about the night before. "Fine, go to work, but I for one have a weeks worth of vacation that I intend to use."

Lois reappeared in a dress that was obviously meant to be worn dirty dancing to some island music and not out in Metropolis, but Clark had other things on his mind. "You look incredible honey. And I understand if the wedding planning got you tired. Just relax and hang out here. I'll be back in a few hours."

Playing along like a good newlywed, Clark pressed Lois against the wall and firmly pressed his lips to hers, opening slightly to even invite her tongue in until he heard her moan like the night before. Pulling out of the kiss, he pulled out of her hand slowly and closed the door. "Chloe, where can you be?" he whispered to himself as he spun out of his clothes and headed into the sky.

**********

Chloe listened to the footsteps come from around the corner as her version of Lex appeared and smiled. "Ok, let's make a deal. I'll lower your gag. But if you so much as breathe the name Superman, I'll paralyze your vocal chords. Now I can't get fairer than that."

Chloe turned as the strange man pulled the gag from around her mouth. She watched his hand carefully as the serum that wasn't for one time green was closely held by her. "Now let's hear that beautiful voice."

Chloe rolled her eyes and could feel her skin crawl even in the presence of this Lex Luthor. It was the same strange feeling she got when in the same room with Lionel only a couple of years earlier. She really couldn't picture Lex that manic or sadistic. This Lex evidently felt more than just jilted at the altar and a crazed fixation on Superman. "You sick, twisted, disgusting sociopath."

"Oh, you finishing school girls have such a way with words." Lex stopped and nodded his head.

"Just turn yourself in. The whole world is looking for you. You can finish your sentence." Chloe was grasping at straws. She and Lex had not had enough time to truly research the Luthor past, but only knew of his engagement to Lois and the hard times there after. His ability to be alive at all was remarkable.

"I was doing a double life sentence, if you didn't remember."

"You can catch up on your reading," Chloe quipped thinking of hobbies that her Lex was fond of and trying to play the only cards she knew.

"Has my Lois turned cruel? You see, life in this ugly city will do that. You'll be more chipper in the Alps," Lex smiled as he moved behind Chloe and rested his hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently.

Chloe's feeling of cold and nervous she got with Lionel just increased. This Lex was just creepy and she closed her eyes as she felt him kneel down beside her. "We have a fortress there in the mountains that is fortified, so you can scream Superman all you want without be heard."

Turning her head, she moved away from the warm breath she felt on her neck, but his hands still firmly held her in place. "Why? I was marrying another man. You could just change your identity and become someone else."

Kissing her cheek, Chloe turned away and tried to raise her shoulder to wipe the slime off, but he still held her. "Yes, but you almost married me, so obviously you're flexible." Coming around to her side, he smiled and leaned into her. "Some portion of that brain of yours used to be in love with me. Now all we have to do is find that piece and awaken it. Besides my dear, Clark is married."

Feeling tears that she didn't even know she had run down her face, she closed her eyes and feared she would never get back to Smallville. She could just tell him the truth, she thought. Maybe then he would let her go, but then again he would hold her because no one would be looking. Explaining to Lex that Clark was also Lex wouldn't impress him much either. Continuing to cry, she knocked against his head when she felt his lips connect with one of her tears. "Don't ever do that again."

"Well, you seem to get more love here than I do up there," The two both looked as someone that looked just like Lois appeared in front of them. "On another note, you forgot to tell me about the cups. They moved the cups and he cancelled my trip to Hawaii."

Chloe was stunned. He had done it again. The whole plan that she had worked up in her head moments before the wedding was coming true in spades. It seemed fitting though. Lex, as Clark, was married to his own deviant creation. Maybe he would learn something about himself before they returned to Smallville, if she ever did.

Lex moved toward the little thing, trying not to growl in anger as Lois kept going on about the things that were wrong since she had been put in place. "Lex, is this who Clark married?"

"And for that you deserted your post?"

The clone glanced at Chloe and smiled devilishly. "I might make other mistakes. Apparently I'm already too pushy in bed."

Chloe choked as the two looked over at her. Lex gripped her arm and raised his voice at the remark. "But you won't be and you will be exactly what he wants when he wants until she is out of the country. And you're going to find out everything you can about Clark's friend, Superman, aren't you? Anything that will help me destroy him."

Chloe gasped knowing the implications now of the whole circus. She understood the Lex of her present world and could easily see where her friend Lex was heading. Fear for what would not only happen to her but at home when they returned ate at her. Lex knew Clark's secret from being him; now the worry resurfaced thinking of what he could do with that information. Watching Lex grip the clone's neck until she stammered for breath, she bit her lip from screaming for him then.

"Now go make Clark happy."

"Yes Lex," the clone pouted as she started off before turning back to Chloe. "I could get used to his body."

Lex turned back to the clone and grabbed her by the arm. "You have a goal. You have been alive nine days, and God willing you will only be alive for nine more."

"But you can fix it for longer?"

Yelling, Lex turned and grabbed the clone by both arms, nearly picking her off the ground, "LOOK I WAS THE ONE THAT WROTE THE CHECKS THAT HAD YOU MADE. I AM GOD. GOD WILL SMITE YOU DOWN!"

Chloe gulped and closed her eyes, sure that the man in front of her trying to romance her moments ago was going to send the girl flying. She was a clone, she would heal. Squeezing her eyes shut, all she heard was a voice, "What does smite mean?" Resisting the urge to suddenly cheer on the fruitcake clone, she quickly clammed up.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Turning he looked back at Chloe and shook his head. "It's such perfect revenge that Clark Kent is married to that."

As he knelt down beside Chloe again, she looked straight on with no emotion. It's great revenge, she thought to herself. You just married an imposter away to yourself, and he's just as brilliant at sniffing out a rat as you are. Or at least Chloe prayed.

************

Lana sat down on the bed and read the card that stated the gift from Lex was one that would hopefully enhance her major. Beaming, she suddenly was torn again for the feelings that Lex was the awful creature that Clark made him out to be. "So what's in the box?" she asked Clark as she put the card back in the envelope.

Sticking his hand in the box, he felt the pinch before dropping the box. Lana leaned over and pulled the rock out of the paper around the box and looked at the silver meteor rock. "Meteor rock, but different than the ones before."

Clark stared at the rock and could feel a strange choking sensation come over him. "I have to go," he stammered as he backed away from her and toward the door. Opening the door, he felt the lunge forward as Chloe was on the other side. "I have to go."

Chloe eyed Lana and the rock in her hand. "Funny, I was just looking...Clark, Wait up." Turning back to Lana, Chloe smiled as best she could. Lois barely could work up a smile knowing how the Lana from her Clark's days was like. Now as Chloe, she begged herself away. "I was actually here to see him. I'll call you later." She hastily added, knowing that wouldn't happen, and started back down the hall toward the door.

Running across the lawn on of the dorm, she caught up with Clark as he started the car. Chloe jumped in and put a hand on top of his. "Clark, talk to me. You're sweating."

Clark glared at Chloe. "He didn't do this. I know that there is something wrong."

"Yeah, and you and meteor rock is probably not a good mix. Who did she say sent it to her?"

"Lex, but..." Clark's breathing got heavier as Chloe pulled the keys from the ignition. Chloe jumped out of the car with the keys in hand and ran around to the other side. Opening the driver's door, she pushed on the now flushed Clark. "Scoot your ass over. We both know Lex didn't do this. Now we have to find who did."

Watching as Clark moved to the other side of the bench seat, Chloe started up the truck and headed for the only place where she knew there could be answers, the mansion.

Pulling him from the truck, she watched as several of the servants came running from the front door and helped. "What happened?" she heard over her shoulder as Lex came down the stairs.

"I don't know. Lana got some meteor rock that was supposedly sent from you, but Clark knew immediately that you wouldn't send it. Now there's something wrong with him. Do you ever remember running into silver kryptonite?" Chloe followed Lex into the mansion and watched as the servants laid Clark down on the couch. He had wakened quickly swinging at the air.

"Clark!" Lex yelled as he held the man in place as much as possible before going backwards into the wall. Clark jostled enough to see Chloe and Lex, his friends from the other world appear.

"I was being run off the road by someone in a black van with Luthorcorp plates. Your father did this." Clark still shook his hands nervously in front of the two. "You may trust that man because of who you are in your dimension but this is one of his little tests." Clark got up and stood in front of the two and stared, thinking of the next words.

"Sit down," the three heard from across the room. "Are you honestly accusing me of playing my own game while the three of you are trying to find a way out of this mess from the meteors? This is obviously something else concocted from your wonderful professor."

Lionel moved slowly across the room, gently pushing Chloe and Lex aside before glaring up into Clark's dilated eyes. "Now listen to me son. This rock you speak of, I need someone to bring it back here where we can look at it more closely. You, Clark, you are going to class tomorrow, be completely normal, but listen carefully to your professor."

Smiling, he sat down and pointed at the others to also take a seat. "Professor Fine came to see me, thinking he would get Lex. Rattled but still forward, he dropped a sizable chunk of information about plans my real son Lex had been undertaking at his lab on the Met U campus. Needless to say, the warehouse visit showed quite a ship he has been hiding." Looking directly at Lex and then Clark. "We have company here in Smallville, and not of the family kind." Staying silent for some more minutes, he watched as Clark's thoughts continued to betray him.

"Lois and I found that the camera feeds you had linked us to went to static at the same time that Fine was on office time but never in his office."

Lionel glanced over at the two. "He carries some type of magnetic field with him that is hiding his whereabouts. I don't think this is all coincidence you are here. Clark, go to class and stay focused. I will work on the meteor problem. Lois, watch him. My son, you and I have some experiments to take care of."

Clark nodded and carefully left the mansion with Chloe in tow. She glanced back over her shoulder at her Clark, now nose deep in Luthor scandals, while waiting for the downfall of human civilization.

Lionel took Lex by the shoulder. "We have much to be done," he commented as he started to close the door.

***********

The next day Clark met Chloe outside the hall where his class was. "Remember to keep your cool. How were the nightmares?"

Clark swallowed as he shook his head. Since the run in with the meteor rock the images of people after him and exposing him had become more and more real. "Everyone is after my secret. Lana, Lionel, my parents."

"But not me and Clark? That means whatever is in that meteor rock causing your paranoia is evidently only working on the dimension of here and now. Stay with me and text me if things get weird in class. Clark?"

Clark shook himself back to reality and checked his phone for the emergency button that was now programmed to Chloe's phone. Shaking his head one more time, he watched as Professor Fine glanced over in his direction, stopped and nodded, and then walked into the building.

"Remember natural." Chloe sighed as Clark turned and headed in behind her. Pulling out her own cell phone, she set up the ring for Clark.

Clark sat down in his usual seat and watched as the professor simply went about his beginning tasks of setting up the projector and his notes. The man continued to not take his eyes of Clark though. Instantly he could see visions of other students in the class pointing at him and mocking him, saying he was an alien. "Mr Kent?"

Shaking his head, Clark looked over in Fine's direction and simply smiled uncomfortably.

"Even the most powerful men can be betrayed by the ones they admire the most. The reason betrayal is such a common theme throughout history is simple. Duplicity is human nature." Fine eloquently spoke as he walked the aisle in front of the row of seats Clark.

Meeting eyes with Clark on the last statement, Fine resisted smirking, but could see the rattled nerves of the young man. Ending the class by turning on the lights, Fine lifted his eyebrows and calmly walked out of the room, eyeing Clark as he picked up his bag.

Immediately, the green meteor rock appeared and Clark backed up, hitting the emergency button on his phone and waiting on the other side of the room until Chloe walked in. "He's baiting me. Look at the rock again."

Chloe walked around each aisle of the classroom and under each chair. "Clark, its another illusion. There's nothing here. Now tell me what your topic of the class was this time around." As Chloe pulled Clark gently out the front door and back into reality, Fine watched from the side of the building, realizing his plans were in full swing.

********

Clark walked into his apartment several hours after leaving. Walking around Metropolis for fresh air wasn't quite the same when people from other newspapers and magazines expected you to be on your honeymoon. Finding a quiet corner, Lex looked at the ring on his finger and hoped he could ignore this failed marriage from the beginning. It would had been easier just marrying Chloe.

"Newlywed alone?" Clark looked up and saw an old man staring at him from a wheelchair. "You seem down. Was the wedding night not what you thought it would be?"

Clark halfway smiled at the old man for being so forward. "Getting a little personal. don't you think? Or is this some get up for you to get a headline. If you must know I was going out for a few things for a homecooked meal as man and wife." Clark started to walk away and heard the man clear his throat.

"That Lois, she's quite a beautiful woman. I have to say the pictures in this morning's newspaper made me a very jealous man. Have a good marriage sonny." Clark turned quickly at the man's last statement to see no one there. Surveying the immediate area, he wondered if he was slowly going insane.

Focusing back his attention back on the task at hand, he thought about what the church had said a little earlier, relaying the same information from the night before. He and the thing were married; the officiant had quietly left and not returned to work in the morning.

Returning back to the house, Lex coaxed his mind into planting a smile on his face. "Hey, I'm ... Lois?"

Lois stood in the middle of the room draped in nothing but a sheet. Dropping the groceries slowly in the kitchen, Clark carefully walked around Lois and into the living room.

"I had a thought if you don't want to make a trip right now. We could just cozy right here. A little breeze from the balcony, a little tussle under the sheet, and maybe a little visit from Superman."

Clark felt her hands wrap around his waist as he knew the sheet had just fallen to the ground. Turning into her now naked body in full daylight, he couldn't help feeling somewhat aroused while keeping his head clear. "Lois," he panted while picking up the sheet and covering her.

"Superman?" This concerned him most of all knowing she wasn't Chloe. Now the fear that Chloe had always had for Clark started to make sense. This Lois was a pawn, this dimension's Lex's pawn. The pawn that would bring the King out of his hiding place Lex thought to himself.

Spinning into the Superman costume, he watched as Lois' eyes grew in excitement and knew she was the key. As he heard her fawn over his body, he now stood in front of the cloned Lois with a new sense of power, the one he hadn't felt since leaving his body in Smallville. Two Lexes could play this game.


	9. Darkness

Chapter 9 - Darkness

Smallville -

Lionel and Lex pulled into the mansion driveway surprised to see the additional car in front of the house. Lionel looked over at his 'son' and shook his head. "A little background for you in case she starts asking questions. Lana saw the ship and met our not so little green men."

Clark rubbed his chin, still uncomfortable with touching the bald head. "What do you suggest our strategy is. I'm not very privy to making underhanded and psychological decisions. What we found in that warehouse was daunting enough."

Feeling the car come to a stop on the back side of the mansion, the two men exited the vehicle and nodded at the driver. "I'm going to disappear, but I have surveillance on the main study from my room now set up. All conversations there will be now recorded. Be sweet with her. I know you probably have been through the Lana escapade before in your other world, but Lex seems to have a little soft spot for her. Use it to find out what she may know but isn't sharing. The sooner we can send Fine back where he came from, the closer to you returning to your world I think we will get."

Clark shook Lionel's hand and poised his features as he walked into the main foyer of the mansion and then into the study where Lex seemed to spend most of his time. He smiled gently but not too giving as Lana stood up and held a silver meteor rock in her hand. "Good afternoon Lana."

Smiling, Lana practically bounded off the chair and smiled at Lex as he sat down on his couch. He wanted her to keep the rock away from him even if he knew it wouldn't hurt.

"I just wanted to thank you for the present. I have never seen a meteor rock like this before." She smiled again.

Lex looked at her and cocked his head to the side. Taking the rock fro her hand, he turned it over in his hands, not feeling any effect of its touch. "As interesting as this is Lana, I have no idea who may have sent this to you. It wasn't me."

Lana looked at him as he continued to turn the rock over in his hand and watch as the crystals seemed to almost change color in the light. Nodding her head, she let out a sigh, "Really, because this came with it." Lana pulled out the note that had Lex's name signed to it and handed it to him.

Lex stood up with both the note and the rock in his hands and continued to analyze now the note as well as the look of the rock. Clark had never seen silver kryptonite and now had something else to look out for in this world and his. "Lana, I did not send this to you, but I am willing to look into it for you."

Lana stood up and walked toward Lex just as he dropped the rock on the ground. Picking up the meteor, he handed it back to her, carefully placing the card and broken shard of the rock on his own desk. "I'm sure you will. As well as you looked in on that spaceship?"

"That's different and you know it. This is a complete fabrication for someone's amusement of all of us." Lex turned around and set the card on the desk as he felt Lana approach.

"How is it different?"

Lex turned and stared down at Lana, remembering what Lionel had said. "It's for your own protection. I'm investigating as we speak, but nothing conclusive has come from any research."

Lana nodded doubtedly although feeling as if Lex was giving more information to her than he normally would. "I don't need protection. I want to know the truth."

Clark flashed back to when he had left Smallville and his version of Lana behind. He had tried to reason with her after telling her the truth. It had caused a virtual ultimatum. It was Superman or her and he had chosen the world. Now he looked at the present Lana, much younger than his Lana had been and shook his head. The truth would hurt her in the long run. "Then I have something to show you."

Underground Metropolis -

Chloe stared at herself in the mirror in the shimmery pink pantsuit that Lex had made for Lois. Ironically she wondered if this Lex would have been happier with their Lana. Hearing from the other room she rolled her eyes, hoping that the insane man would just be quiet. "I had that made for you for the first wedding. I'm so happy you're going to wear it."

Walking out of the changing room she looked at the pile of bags on the ground and then over at Lex with hair. She wondered by he wouldn't just shave that mop off. "You threatened me." Lois looked over as Lex stood and stared.

"Forgive me, but your beauty is still continuing to stun me. The fire in your eye, the sultry curl of your lip." Lex moved closer and breathed in her hair.

"It's nausea," Lois answered coldly.

"You know the reason I put up with you." Lex moved around her and smiled. "Because in a few hours, we will be in my fortress in the Alps together. See once my name and character were branded criminal, my outcast status allowed for the true Lex to blossom. I was relieved of all pretense and respectability. I may be starting over but on my terms, far easier to stomach. An empire of pure evil, solely for the glorification of us."

Lois stared at Lex as he touched the top button of the jacket she wore. This pyscho would not be the second person she was ever with as Chloe Sullivan. "And soon the seductive misuse of power takes hold. Every lord needs a lady, every poet a muse."

Chloe swallowed as she felt Lex's lips on Lois skin. Picturing snakes crawling up her neck was almost better than this man as he reached under her jacket and moved his hand slowly up her blouse. Closing her eyes, she felt his lips move up her ear as he pressed his body firmly against her side, feeling his excitement already taking hold. Leaning back into the touch, she felt his grip loosen slightly as she moved her leg up his and then slammed the heel of her shoe into his.

Metropolis -

Lex had to think, and he had to get out of the house to do it. He pulled back the sheet and padded to the restroom, grabbing the boxers and putting the costume away in one movement. He watched his cloned wife stir slightly from the wind that his speed always generated. Now he knew where the strange winds in Smallville always came from. Looking back over his shoulder, he closed his eyes and was glad the last hour was over.

The cloned Lois had seemed to pepper the entire intimate experience with questions about Superman, ones that would hopefully give away the fact she was a total fake to anyone. He wondered if the Clark sent to Smallville would have also picked up on something, anything that would have been amiss.

Grabbing the sink, he sighed. He actually missed Chloe and didn't want to picture what she could be going through. He turned on the water in the shower and quickly rinsed any remnants of the clone off of him. He had not totally given in, only giving information that the clone could have learned anyway by just picking up a book. As she fell asleep to him making up stories of growing up in Smallville with special abilities, he decided space would be good. Quickly switching back to Superman after the shower, he stopped and listened for her deep breathing and then something else caught his ear.

Looking through Lois' bag from the wedding, he watched as a couple of makeup cases moved. Opening them up, he smiled to himself. Before leaving the apartment, he looked back at the clone. It would be an awful shame, but he knew what had to be done.

Arriving first at STAR Labs, he watched as the man that he and Chloe had read some about when they were reading various articles on themselves continued to putter around the lab with one other assistant. Walking in, he cleared his throat, saw the man look in his direction, and gently asked the other person to leave.

"Superman, what brings you here today?"

"I thought maybe you could help me with something." Superman dumped the small bag of makeup containers on the table and waited as a couple of heads popped out of them. "Lois and Clark were investigating a story that had to deal with the cloning properties of these particular frogs, but they are supposed to be on their honeymoon, so I thought maybe you could get some more information on them. Looking mainly at their cloning cycle and how long a clone will last without sustenance."

Dr Klein watched as the frogs moved across the table and shook his head. "I can take a look. Any idea when you want to check back for them? I may need a few days to completely dissect one do some other experiments." He picked up the one getting away and moved it back toward the middle of the table.

"I'll check back in a few days then." Superman looked at the table again and hoped the good doctor would find something. Leaving out the main door, Dr Klein heard a woosh and then nothing. Staring at the little green frogs, he watched as two of them had already started trying to munch on each other.

The second stop was his own apartment. Flying through the main outside balcony, he shook his head and wondered how Clark never got spotted. Modern technology of eyes everywhere had apparently not happened yet. Walking into the living room, though, he stopped short of changing and stared at Martha and Jonathon.

"Son? What on Earth are you doing here?" Jonathon stood up and hugged his son. "Are still working on Lois?"

"Yes and no." He sat down next to him, wondering how quickly he could get rid of them. "Apparently this clone has been sent by Lex to find the real Superman. Tonight, she asked to see Superman when we were..."

"Moving on son," Martha embarrassingly stated.

"Anyway, I changed into the costume at super speed and she was in complete shock, so I know that's not really Lois. But I'm pretending until I can get a fix on what her real plans are. She's asleep back at the apartment. I left her note about some fire some place, but the frogs that Lois and I were investigating, I took a couple I found in Lois' wedding things to Dr. Klein. Maybe he can at least tell me how long this clone will last."

Martha moved over to the couch beside her son and put her arm around him. "How are you holding up?"

Lex felt the lump in his throat thinking he had never been asked how he felt in his world. Everything was about the external; nobody had ever really cared about his welfare. He put on a smile and looked at Martha. "I'm ok." He was silent and closed his eyes as Clark's mother continued to embrace him, now squarely able to picture Chloe's face and realizing how much she had done for their dimension's Clark by hiding his secret and more so that he actually missed her.

Pulling away from Martha's embrace, he tendered a smile and shook his head. "It'll be ok. Just, stay here in town for a little longer, but don't get involved." The two parents shook their heads and then hugged Clark. He looked back wondering how he could have been different if he had parents like that.

Smallville -

Chloe and Clark arrived back at the farm after the incident in the classroom. Clark hadn't said anything on the way home, but Chloe tried to get him to talk about what he was seeing. Shaking her head, she stopped the car and looked at him. "You know now that this is why Clark and I were sent here. You may feel like you have to bottle all this up inside around Lana and even around your parents or the real Chloe, but Clark and I have been through it together. You need to talk to me or we can't help you."

Clark glanced at her silently. After a long pause, he closed his eyes. "The visions get worse every time, and I know if you weren't Lois and Lex wasn't the other Clark that I would actually start believing them. That's the only thing keeping me sane right now."

Chloe watched as Clark continued to stare into the barn right then and cock his head. "What is it?"

Clark stopped breathing and shook his head, still staring into the barn. "Is my dad in the barn?"

Chloe looked in the same direction. "Yeah, he's moving hay bales. Why?"

"I see Lionel Luthor's car and he's telling my dad to take a bribe for the open senate seat in return for me. Chloe told Lionel my secret and now they're going to experiment on me." He stopped and stared at Chloe, knowing that none of this could have happened. He had seen Chloe's computer himself when he was helping Lois and Clark dig through her old files. There were no emails.

He felt her grab his shoulder and bring him back. "It's all in your head Clark. You have to get the visions under control. The only car in the driveway is your dad's truck and no one's there with him, but maybe you should stay with them through this. Clark is working on getting the rock from Lana."

As if a premonition, Chloe's phone began to buzz and she quickly caught the text. As Clark was getting out of the car, Chloe grabbed his jacket. "Clark, stay away from Lana. Fine sees her as a link to you, and presently that's not good. Lionel texted me. She's not telling you what she knows about the meteor shower you all were in, but she is talking to Lex."

TBC


	10. Arguments

Chapter 10 –

Metropolis –

It was worth the effort she put in. Lois pulled from Lex's grip and charged up the stairs in the underground prison but couldn't tread the ladder rungs fast enough. Lex grabbed her leg with one hand and quickly inserted a syringe into her leg with another.

Shaking her leg, the toxin seemed to move faster than she had expected and she completely lost her footing. Gripping the rungs, she now felt the weight of his hands pulling on her until she fell back into the abyss.

She looked up and saw Lex shaking his head in dismay. "My lovely Lois, what a pity I had to do that. I was so hoping that we wouldn't have to come to such measures." Smirking, Lex wandered back into the underground depth. Lois watched as she continued to beat on her legs with her hands hoping for some response.

She heard movement in the now dark tunnel and saw her bags appear in front of her. "Of course, you have made it much more difficult for us to emerge from this cavern and carry on with our journey." He breathed a heavy sigh and waved at a man that appeared to be twice the size of Clark.

"Put me down!" Lois screamed just as Lex bounded her mouth as the giant simply held her arms still. Still struggling to pull loose, the giant carefully walked up the ladder with her on his shoulder and dropped her in the car in the alley.

Looking up, Chloe could see the sun. Moving her teeth around she hoped to work one side of the gag down in order to get out some response, even if it was to scream Lex's name. She hoped the right Lex would respond. Seeing the door close to the limo and hearing the engine start she knew nothing of the sort would occur when the demon Lex of this twisted dimension sat down next to her in the back seat. "Now my dear, we have a few errands to run."

Smallville –

Lex opened the building that Lana had insisted on seeing. Clark thought to himself that he had been glad that his Lana had been simply clear on no funny supernatural superhero stuff. She wanted nothing to do with aliens or other worlds. She had put her foot down. This dimension proved to be different. He almost wanted to drag Clark in to simply have him tell Lana the truth to get it out. If she didn't buy it, fine, but it would be over. But that, he had a feeling was not part of their plan.

"There," he said as he flipped on the lights. Following her over to the ship, he grimaced at the object, knowing that in some fashion he was there to rid the dimension of the object and its contents. "So you saw the men from the ship."

Lana ran her hand over the ship and smiled to herself, finally thinking she wasn't crazy. She turned and then turned her nose up at Lex. "Yes, I saw them. You were there, telling me I was out of my mind, that there had been nothing there. You had me thinking that maybe I was crazy, had been hit by something in the meteor shower."

Lex touched her shoulder. "I told you it was for your own protection, but you want to be involved. Who else have you told?"

"No one, maybe I tried, but no one, not even you would pay any attention. There's no proof they said." Lana looked doe eyed up at Lex for any response. Lex nodded silently as she continued to rub her hand along the side.

"I want you in on this case then. I want you to help me decipher the markings on it, help me get into it. Your protection stops here because I have no guarantees for anyone that has come in contact with this vessel. People have died for a lot less."

Lex watched as Lana took in the basic terms of their agreement. Biting her lip, she cocked her head, "Interesting that a few minutes ago you were hell bent on letting me get close for my own protection. Now you are saying that I have free will as long as I can pay the consequences. What changed just now?" She stood and waited for a response from her silent partner. Huffing, she nodded. "Perhaps because I'm the only one who's seen it open."

Clark stood stock still and took in her last statement. He hadn't seen enough of the research notes to know if she had told Lex that before. Looking at the craft and then back at her, "Perhaps. Or the fact that this might be the end of what you have thought up to now is reality, Clark, Chloe. It's not something you can speak of lightly. Is it a risk your willing to take?"

Lana stared at her counterpart, breathing as he moved nearer to her, hand outstretched as to create a pact. Looking up at the man that she neither let go of or trusted on a daily basis, she gulped and slid her hand into his as to shake on their agreement.

"It'll do. She's never been one to stay focused on anything too long, but this may be just the thing," Lionel commented as he came down from the dark walkway that overlooked the ship.

Clark nodded. "She is a piece; I'm not sure what this dimension sees in her."

Lionel ran his hand along the ship once more as the two walked toward the exit. "Lana Lang has a part to play in this world, and I see her part growing but she will not end up being who everyone pictured her to be. Like your dimension, I have a feeling her bit will meet an end of some kind. Now, to see what we can really decipher from this black diamond."

Clark watched as Lionel circled the ship once more and closed his eyes as he felt the patterns of the words. Shaking, Clark moved in as Lionel seemed to develop an almost epileptic episode before falling to ground on his back. Coming to scoop up the elder Luthor, he grabbed him.

"Thank you. This mechanism has an energy that presses back against the vessel in me. I can't see what it represents. I just see the same symbols as the walls of my cell." Clark glanced at the symbols in the liquid metal that glowed a faint green and then disappeared as Lionel moved from the ship.

"How about just having Clark do something with it?"

Lionel turned and looked at the image of his son and shook his head. "It is stronger now than Clark is. I've watched, I've seen him; he's no match, not right now. We have to find another avenue, but the professor is our key."

Metropolis –

Chloe looked out the darkened windows as she sat bounded by her feet. Having been the supposed gentleman, Lex had finally removed her gag but showed her yet another toxin that would eliminate her vocal ability. "Aren't you a little afraid of what mixing toxins would do?"

Lex smiled in her direction as the car slowed. "Dear, I am a chemist by trade. I would never create such a mixture as to permanently harm you. Now, a little stop at the bank."

Chloe looked over at the bank and trust and glared. "I have some mad money stored away, and ah here she is." He lowered the window and smiled at his most successful creation.

Lois leaned over into the window and smiled at Chloe. Chloe wanted to giggle at the Lanaesque pink that the clone was wearing, knowing that Lois would never be caught dead in pink in any dimension. "So," the clone started, "I've rethought this. I'm totally and completely bored with your controlling me. I mean, you get to go to Europe and ski with…her and I get, well I want…"

"You are no position to…"

"I want to be totally left alone with Clark. I have found that he's grown on me and he's," Lois pauses and smiles in Chloe's direction. "Supercool, if you know what I mean." Smiling again, the clone waved in Chloe's direction and started away.

"Look, if this is some kind of game you are playing, you come back here and," Lex started raising his voice and jumped out of the car after the clone as she started into the bank.

Chloe watched in heightened awareness of the little meltdown that the clone was having about Clark. Wanting to giggle at Lex's obvious frustration, she listened as the argument escalated.

"Here's the deal. I'm not going to spy for you anymore, I don't want to be bothered, I want the secret to my existence, and all the cable channels." The clone smiled and continued swinging her purse.

"I don't make deals with clones." Lex warned as he took her arm and started toward the bank.

"Ahh, I don't think you would want to make a scene here, would you?" she asked as Lex let go of her hand, knowing being caught now would foil his whole plan.

Heading back to the car, he looked in the backseat and then in the driver's seat and cursed to himself.

Smallville -

Lois watched as Clark sat in the car and tried to concentrate on what she was telling him. He had to keep telling himself that Lex was himself from another dimension. The reaction to the new kryptonite was causing him even more problems focusing.

"I have to talk to Lana." He stopped and opened the door as he felt Chloe's hand on his shoulder.

"I don't think that is the best idea. Look, she's your poison right now. She's the only one who has seen anyone connected to this Zod, who's seen them, and you're falling right into their trap. Go in your house, talk to your parents, tell them about your visions." Clark continued to pull out of the car, but Lois wouldn't let go. "Seriously, Clark, trust me – I know more about you than you know right now."

Clark stopped and turned looking at her leaning all the way across the car, still holding his arm. Nodding, he agreed. "Ok, I'll call you if anything else happens tonight." She watched Clark as he closed the door and walked up the driveway to his house. She pulled away as he disappeared into the house with his father behind him.

A little while later she pulled into the driveway at the mansion and walked into the library to see Lionel and Lex sitting with a drink in hand. "So, is this what you and your son usually do in the evening?"

Lionel turned and looked in the direction of the new Chloe incarnate. "Ideally, but most of the time we don't quite see eye to eye. In fact, sitting and talking to your Clark here is much like what I wish I could have with Lex."

Chloe sat down next to Lex and smiled as the two grabbed each other's hands. "Maybe something will come out of this that we're not expecting. I guess we haven't really had enough time to sit and wonder what is going on. I wonder if they got married."

At that exact moment, Chloe swallowed and realized what she had just done to the balance of the dimension. Covering her mouth, she looked at Lex and then at Lionel. "I…"

Lionel set his drink down on the table and leaned back into the deep chair, staring carefully at the girl with blond hair that was much deeper than he realized. "And the story gets just a little deeper." Lionel looked at his now empty drink and covered his mouth in an all out laugh. He couldn't remember when he had truly laughed. Rising from his seat, he glanced again at the two. His son looked quite embarrassed, but now started to laugh as well. "A good place for me to step out. And not a word to our Clark. I shall enjoy seeing his new love bloom in its own way."

Clark waited for the lights downstairs to go off and then crept out of the house. He had been having more visions that he couldn't explain. His parents talking to Chloe about ways that they could kill him while he was upstairs. They stated with that rock and he knew who had it last. She also hid more than she should have from him and was now going to answer.

Waiting until he was outside, he listened as the phone rang. "Hello?"

"Lana, where's the rock?"

Lana yawned from what Clark could tell. Sitting up in the bed, she noticed that Chloe was still out well past her normal dirt digging hours. "At Lex's. He's working on finding a cure for you. Clark are you alright? You seemed to leave pretty quickly and I haven't seen you all day."

Clark leaned against the side of the barn furthest from his parent's window. He continued to sweat and rub his face as he saw more visions in the fields that seemed more like premonitions than visions. "I need that meteor. Meet me at Lex's."

Lana heard the phone click and sat, staring at the empty space in the room. She had talked to Chloe about his infection and understood that he was in a dangerous place at the moment. Dialing again, she hoped that she would pick up.

"Lana?"

"Chloe, I don't know where you are but Clark is acting really strange and called. He told me to meet him at Lex's. He's looking for that meteor rock."

"Why? Did he say?"

"No, but Lex might be in trouble. I'm on my way." Chloe heard a click before she could respond. Keeping Lana out of the loop made it worse; she thought Lex was now Clark's sole enemy and was purposefully trying to hurt him. Damn, she thought as she picked up the phone and dialed her future husband.

"Lex, Clark's on his way over and he's hot. Hide that rock. And if you have any ideas, now would be a great time to come up with them."

Metropolis –

Lex looked around the rest of the intersection for Lois and cursed again. Getting back in the car, he ordered the driver to make a circle of the block. He had lost both Lois and the clone in one moment.

Chloe watched as the car pulled away. She looked at the scrape up the side of the leg, but could feel some tingling returning. Perfect timing. "Help! Sup…"

"Yeah, I'm totally not digging that idea," the clone dropped as she lowered the pipe that she had taken to the back side of Chloe's head.

"Ow," Chloe held her head as she took the pipe and swept it under the clone's feet. Watching her fall to the ground even with her, Chloe looked straight at her and took another swipe to the clone's face, knowing that it would heal, but give her time to get away.

Pulling herself up to her feet, Chloe straightened out her clothes and grabbed a hold of a truck. "I need a ride." The man in the truck smiled as he helped her in.

"Do you have a name? A place you want to go?"

Chloe thought for a moment, looking back at the clone still on the ground. "Nellie. And wherever you are going." Chloe smiled as she still rubbed the bump on her head.


End file.
